Rift, Hellmouth, Same Difference
by kerrykhat
Summary: Buffy gets sucked into the Hell vortex at the end of Becoming, only to end up on the rain-slicked streets of Cardiff. What's Torchwood to do with a lost Slayer?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Torchwood. They respectively belong to Joss Whedon and the BBC. I own nothing.**

**AN:** Time-wise, this takes place after "Becoming" in BtVS and right after "Day One" in Torchwood. There will be canon Torchwood pairings, so expect Janto later on in the story.

* * *

"Morning, Ianto," Captain Jack Harkness said as he strode down to the center of the Hub from his office. The Welshman looked up, his face impassive. "How's my favorite Welsh man muffin?"

"I asked you not to call me that, sir," Ianto remarked as he first handed Jack an overflowing manilla folder and then a steaming cup of coffee. "The nickname is rather demeaning. And I am well rested," he added in order to forestall another question from his boss. Jack shook his head at the Welshman with a slight smile on his face. He took a sip of the coffee and resisted the urge to groan with pleasure. The first cup of the day always did this to him, one of the many reasons he kept Ianto around. Whistling jauntily, Jack went back up to his office to tackle the seemingly never-ending mountain of paperwork he had to do. There were still loose ends to tide up in regards to Suzie and he needed Gwen to fill out her paperwork.

One by one, the remainder of his team straggled in. Ianto was always the first to come and the last to leave. Jack wondered when the boy found time to sleep. Tosh was the next to arrive, making a beeline for her computer while still absorbed with whatever was on her PDA. Jack smiled as she frantically began typing, transferring information from one device to another. Gwen showed up next, the wide-eyed look from yesterday was still on her face. She sat down at her desk with a slightly confused look on her face. She would get over it soon. She would have to if she wanted to stay here and remain sane. Predictably, Owen was the last to roll in, with a distinctly rumpled look and a smirk on his face. He had this look whenever he had been lucky the night before.

"Morning, lads and lassies," Jack boomed in a fake Scottish accent as he looked down on his domain. "Any doomsdays, interesting activity and the like on our agenda today?"

"There's no abnormal Rift activity so far," replied Tosh, lifting her eyes briefly from her computer screen. "Also, there's nothing suspicious coming in over the CCTV."

"Good," Jack commented as she swept down the stairs—the best way to accent his amazing coat. "Gwen, finish this paperwork and come with me. I still need to give you the grand tour of this place. Owen, how's that autopsy going?" Owen grumbled a noncommittal answer, something about a fish and a screwdriver.

The day passed uneventfully, with Jack getting Gwen acclimated to the Hub, Tosh updating their systems and monitoring the Rift, Owen alternating between actually working and goofing off, and Ianto doing, well, whatever Ianto did.

"Are most days like this?" Gwen asked over a leisurely lunch of pizza. Owen groaned and Ianto shot her a dirty look.

"Important rule—never comment on when a day is boring," commented Jack nonchalantly, staring at the ceiling. "What do you think it'll be this time, team?" No one answered, hoping that by staying quiet they could avoid the inevitable. "What, no takers?" Jack continued, a wicked grin on his handsome face.

"With our luck lately, it will be an invasion of some sort," muttered Ianto darkly as he began to clear the boxes away from the table. A nervous laugh swept through the room. One by one, the team returned to their desks.

Dusk soon came, with nothing more exciting than some Weevil removal from an abandoned warehouse. They were about to head back to the Hub and call it a night when Ianto's worried voice broke through the coms.

"Sir, I'm getting readings of some massive Rift activity about two miles east of your position," reported Ianto as he brought up video feeds and charts onto the screens in the Hub and sent them to Tosh in the SUV. "The spike was fairly sudden. Nothing has come through yet, although it wouldn't surprise me given the amount of energy being released."

"Jack, this energy is like nothing I've ever seen before," Tosh interjected as Jack tore through the streets of Cardiff like a madman. "I need to finish analyzing it back at the Hub, but we may be dealing with something completely different than what we're used to."

Jack swore under his breath as he glanced at the GPS. "Tosh, stay here and see if you can give me something on the energy: What makes it different, where it may be from and what it might spit out at us. Owen, out front with me. Gwen, stay behind us and do exactly what I say. I don't want a repeat of yesterday."

He could see the glow of the Rift energy now, but the golden glow was strangely tinted with red. Ianto was right; there was a good chance they would be getting a visitor tonight.

Swinging the SUV into the street, the glowing energy strangely brightened. "Owen, Gwen, get out now and have your weapons ready," he barked as he stopped the car and leapt out. The light only continued to get brighter, causing him to throw his arm over his face in order to protect his eyes. Gradually, the energy began to fade away, leaving Jack blinking away the spots in front of his eyes. Glancing around, he spotted what the Rift had left them.

A girl, it was hard to tell her age in this light, stood crouched down and panting softly. Her hair was ragged and singed at the ends and her clothes were ripped and burned, as well as worn through in several places and it looked like she had a sword with her. She glanced around wildly, her eyes wide in her pale, drawn face. Not knowing what she was, Jack did what any other agent would do in this situation. Walking forward, he drew his gun.

"Freeze."

* * *

Pain. She was surrounded by pain. There were so many demons around her, all trying to tear her apart. She didn't know what happened to Angel, she hadn't seen him since she had fallen into this hell dimension. She didn't know how long she fought against them, pushing herself beyond all measures of endurance. Whenever she thought she had room to breathe for a moment, they were back again, all of them trying to kill the pesky Slayer that had appeared in their home dimension.

Something started sending her spidey senses into overdrive. Looking around, she saw a prick of golden light tinged with red. Before the demons surrounding her realized what she was doing, she was running towards the light, hoping beyond all reason that this was the way to get home. Reaching out, her finger touched the light…

She was ripped from the dimension, tumbling over and over through the light, not knowing which way was up and which way was down. Finally, the light spat her out onto the pavement, out of breath and disoriented.

_Where am I?_ she wondered as she looked around furtively. Car. There was a car with people coming out; people or vampires? She couldn't tell right now, her senses were semi-fried. She heard a gun cock and the terse "Freeze" that followed it. She stiffened, memories flying back to her.

_Kendra lay in the middle of the room, her throat bloody. How could she be so stupid, how could she let Angel trick her like that? Before she could fully adjust to what just happened, she heard the gun and the cop shout "Freeze."_

These were cops, coming for her for Kendra's murder. Her breathing increased and her vision narrowed. Standing up slowly, she did the one thing her battered mind could think of. She ran.

"Shit!" Jack shouted as the girl bolted down a side street, running faster than a normal human should be. "Tosh, try and track her on CCTV," he ordered as he took off after the girl. "Ianto, change all lights to allow the SUV to follow her without interruption. Owen, drive!" Jack ran after the girl, doing his best to keep up with her down the various side streets. "Tosh…" he shouted when he lost her.

"She's only a couple streets over," Tosh's voice reassured him. "There's a short cut you can take to cut her off." With Tosh in his ear guiding him, Jack raced down the rain-slicked Cardiff streets.

"Just take one more left and unless she suddenly changes directions, you should have her," Tosh said. "We're going to cut her off in the back with the SUV."

"Gwen, grab the tranq gun under the passenger's seat and give it to Owen," Jack ordered. Turning a corner, he was taken by surprise for the second time that day.

In front of him, the girl was fighting a Weevil. No, not fighting, beating that thing into the ground. Her movements were awkward at times, probably due to her injuries, but she still fought with a grace and speed he had never seen in a human being in all his years of travel. She was beautiful yet deadly. In the back of his mind, he saw the SUV drive up and Owen climbing out with the tranq gun in his hands. Holding his hand up to stop Owen for a moment, he watched as the girl delivered a roundhouse kick to the Weevil, knocking it unconscious. He was even more impressed. He could barely stand his own with a Weevil and here was a girl almost half his size taking it out without breaking a sweat.

Nodding briefly to Owen, Jack watched as she started when the tranquilizer hit her. She looked up with a shocked look on her face, only to crumble slowly to the ground. Owen and Gwen rushed to catch her and lowered her slowly to the wet pavement below. Striding towards the body, Jack was surprised to see that she looked exactly like a teenage girl, albeit one who looked like she hadn't had a decent meal and a good night's sleep in a good while.

"Owen, Gwen, put her in the back seat and secure her. I would also give her another dose of tranquilizers. Don't want her waking up and hitting things," he added with a small smile. "I know you all don't go for the whole rough-housing things."

"Jack, what I gave her would knock out a human twice her size," Owen argued. "Give her any more and she could go into an overdose. If she looks like she's waking up, I'll give her another dose, but I don't want to risk her dying."

"Owen…"

"You a doctor then Jack? Can I see your degree? Oh wait, you don't have one. Let's leave this to the professional shall we?"

"Fine," Jack said as he made his way to the driver's side. "When we get back to the Hub, I want complete readings on her. What she is, where she may have come from and how the hell she got here. Ianto," he added, talking into the comm.

"Yes, sir?"

"Look over the recordings of the Rift activity. See if we can get any clues from that. Gwen, when we get back, help Owen with the girl. Make sure she's restrained. I don't want her breaking our pretty toys."

* * *

Struggling through the fog that surrounded her, Buffy could make out several faint voices. Straining, she caught a fragment of a conversation somewhere above her:

"…Completely human, nothing out of the ordinary Jack," said the first voice. The accent was a little like Giles', except with a slight edge to it.

"That doesn't explain how she was able to take down a Weevil, a unsedated Weevil at that, all on her own," came a second voice, American this time, sounding both annoyed and curious at the same time.

"And I'm telling you, there is nothing abnormal about her, except that she appears to be healing faster than any humans can," came Mr. British-dude, sounding annoyed at voice number two. "Maybe you should ask her when she wakes up. What a concept."

Tuning out the voices, Buffy tried to recollect what happened before she collapsed…wait, a minute, she hadn't collapsed. She had been fighting that fugly looking demon when she had felt a small prick on the back of her neck. Whoever tranqued me is in for a whole lot of hurt, she thought angrily as she noticed she was restrained to a bed with handcuffs. Testing them slightly, she smiled inwardly. They shouldn't be too hard to break free of using her Slayer strength. These cops had just made a big mistake.

Listening carefully, she noticed that it was absolutely silent around her. Cracking her eyes a little bit, she tried to take inventory of her surroundings. The bed she was on was in some sort of pit, surrounded by white tiles. The voices that she had been eavesdropping in on were coming from the area above the pit. _OK, mysterious cops, let's see how you like the Slayer._

In a swift, controlled movement, Buffy winced slightly as the metal snapped off her wrists.

"What was that?" asked one of the voices, the American one. Making a face, Buffy rolled off the bed, stabilizing herself before briefly taking inventory of her weapon options. _Where's a sword when I need one?_ she asked herself silently as she reached for a scalpel. Why couldn't these people be stupid and leave something bigger and more-pointy within easy reaching distance?

Hearing a gun cocking again, Buffy ducked behind what looked to be an important piece of equipment. "There's nowhere to go," came Mr. America. "We have you surrounded and we aren't afraid to shoot."

"What gives you the insane idea I'm going to come out and surrender to the idiots who attacked me?" Buffy responded, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "Crazy much?"

"Look, we don't want to hurt you," came the voice again, trying to placate her. "Just come out and talk. That's all we want."

"Be a nice boy and promise you won't hurt me first," came Buffy's reply as she examined the piece of equipment she was hiding behind. It was like nothing she had ever seen before and she knew her basic medical equipment. Hearing nothing, she decided drastic times called for drastic measures.

"Oh…shiny," she cooed as she fingered the scalpel. "Wonder what it sounds like when I scratch it like so…" She mimed scrapping the pointy end against a bit of wiring that was peaking just around the corner so whoever was there could see it. She could hear a slight gasp on the other side. "Now, unless you want shiny to go bye-bye, I recommend you do as I ask."

"Jack, do you know how long it took me to track that machine down?" came the Giles-wannabe voice with a slight panicked edge to it. "Just do what she asks."

"Time's running out," Buffy called out in a sing-song voice. "Limited time offer and all that jazz."

There was a slight pause before Mr. America finally bit out, "Fine. We promise not to shoot…"

"I said not to hurt me. Don't be playing with my words, Mister. I know what I said," Buffy retorted, moving her hand closer to the machine. She could hear a distant groan from the other side. She gave a small smile. Tormenting him was going to be fun times.

"Fine. We won't hurt you," said the voice, placing special emphasis on the word "hurt."

"Positive?" she asked, half for serious, half for fun.

"Yes," came the weary reply. Deciding that she had tormented these men enough, Buffy cautiously stood up, keeping the equipment between her and her captors. Looking up, she took stock of the five people staring down at her.

There was a small Asian woman, looking at a small techie thing that reminded Buffy of the tricorders that Xander envied so much. Next to her was a burnette, whose white lab coat covered his jeans and t-shirt. This must be Giles-lite if the glare he was giving her was any indication. Both of these two were on the stairs leading down to the tiled pit she was in. On the balcony bit, two more brunettes, one male and one female were giving her odd looks. The woman didn't look like much, but the guy was cute, in a boyish, suit-wearing way.

It was the man in the middle who commanded her attention the most, however. He was handsome, strikingly handsome, with a roguish grin on his face. His hair was artfully mussed and the smirk he wore meant he knew he looked damn good with it like that way. With his blue shirt unbuttoned at the very top and the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, he made a dashing figure, even with suspenders. Buffy studied him, hazel eyes serious, before giving him a wicked grin.

"What's with the old-man straps?" she asked innocently, cocking her head to the side. "Weren't those in style, I don't know, never?" she continued, trying her best to channel Queen C at her worst. The man looked taken aback. Apparently no one seemed to speak to him like this.

"Excuse me?" he asked, a shocked look on his face. Next to him, suit-boy smirked slightly.

"Do you not understand English or something? Do you need me to translate?" Buffy continued. "I mean, really, they do nothing for you." She was moving slowly away from the equipment now, but her eyes never left the man in the middle. She placed her money on him being Mr. America.

"Who are you?" he demanded, glaring down at her. Most people would have found him extremely alluring, but Buffy was in no mood for that right now. She had learned her lesson about dating older men—or dating in general for that matter.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," she said as she studied the railings just above her head. She hated being short, they were just out of her reach. She'd have to equalize the height playing field the hard way.

"I asked first," he replied, a wicked little grin on his face. Good, he was catching on.

"Too bad," she replied as she backed up and ran towards the bed. Using it as a launching pad, she planted her hands and flipped herself up to land on the railing. Wobbling a bit before catching her balance and hoping off. She stumbled a bit before catching herself and standing up straight, taking a perverse pleasure in everyone's shocked looks.

"How…How did you just do that?" stammered Lab-man. "You only just woke up. You should barely be able to walk!"

Buffy shrugged. "I eat my Wheaties every morning, Med-man. Speaking of which, I'm starved. What do you all have to munch on around here?"

"You can eat after you tell us who you are and where you come from," Mr. America told her, a serious look on his face, evaluating her closely. "You had an ID on you for Sunnydale High, for a 'Buffy Summers,' but we ran that through our database and neither you nor your town exist. So tell me, Miss Summers, how did you come through the Rift?" Buffy paused for a moment before the words sunk in.

_Portal…Angelus opening the portal…sword…"Close your eyes."…falling…"Freeze."…Spike with a deal…"If you walk out of here you can't come back"…Giles bloody and broken…"Me"…soul…Kendra…"Kick his ass"…Angel…_

With a cry, her memories flooded back to her, stunning her. Ever since she had entered the hell dimension, there hadn't been time to fully process what had happened to her. "Oh God," she whispered as she fell to her knees holding her head in her hands, wishing the memories would go away. Tears started to fall but she didn't care. "Oh God…Angel…"

"…How did you come through the Rift?" was all Jack had asked, but her reaction was completely different from what he had expected, given her response so far. He had expected a flippant response, a bright grin and the urge to throttle her. Instead she broke down, repeating the words "Oh God" and "Angel" over and over as she rocked back and forth. She began shivering, but seemed unaware of the change.

"She's going into shock," shouted Owen as he made his way towards her. "Someone grab a blanket!" Ianto ran to the couch and returned quickly, blanket in hand. Owen snatched it and wrapped it around the shaking girl. "Don't move her," he ordered as he moved back a little and gave her a clinical look.

She looked up at them, green eyes clouded over. "Where…Where am I?" she asked in a broken voice.

"You're in Cardiff, Wales," Jack told her, surprised at the sudden change in her. Something caused this, something changed what had been a bubbly young woman into this broken being.

"Are you sure that there's no place called Sunnydale? Are you absolutely sure?" she whispered, panic in her voice.

"I'm positive," Tosh broke in, pity on her face. "I checked three times to make sure. Sunnydale doesn't exist here." What remaining color in the girl's face left, leaving her ghost white.

"Mom…" she whispered as she pulled the blanket tighter around her small frame and more tears streamed down her face. "Giles…"

To everyone's surprise, it was Ianto who reached out to comfort her. Kneeling down, he put his hand on her shoulder. She didn't react but kept rocking back and forth. No one was sure what they could do to comfort this broken girl who had been ripped out of her home and thrust here.

Gradually her sobs turned into muffled sniffles and she looked at them with red-rimmed eyes. "Let's get you something to eat," Ianto told her gently as he helped her stand up and guided her to the conference room. The girl only nodded silently and followed his lead, still clutching the blanket in her hands.

"What are we going to do with her, Jack?" as Gwen with a concerned look on her face. "She has nowhere to go and we don't know exactly what she is yet."

"We'll figure it out," Jack reassured her. "We'll figure it out."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my snow jacket.

**AN:** Thank you to RevDorothyL for betaing this for me!

* * *

Buffy followed Suit Boy in a daze. She no longer had a home; she no longer had friends or family. She was alone. These thoughts kept playing in her mind on repeat as the man led her to a couch, sat her down, and returned with some leftover pizza.

"Here, eat this," he told her as he placed the reheated food in her hands. She did as he told her do without giving it much thought. He sat down next to her and watched her as if making sure she actually did eat. Surprisingly, the food did make her feel better. Not happy-cheerleader Buffy but it did help ease the empty ache inside her.

"Thank you," she told the man quietly after she finished the last piece of pizza he had given her.

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her as he helped her stand up and led her to another area. Where was she anyways? Buffy had never seen anything like this before. There were computers everywhere, but they were way different from the clunky one Willow used at school. These computers were sleek and shiny and looked like they could eat Willow's computer for breakfast. Lights flashed everywhere and there appeared to be a lake in the middle of the room. The only parts of the complex that looked relatively normal were the desks cluttered with paper and knick-knacks. At the center of the room was a column-like thing that gave Buffy the wiggins. It was sending off some weird sort of vibes, not unlike the Hellmouth.

"What's that?" she asked her guide as he sat her down at one of the empty desks. He looked at where she was pointing and looked back at her.

"That's the Rift. It's a tear through space and time that runs through Cardiff. It likes to drop random alien beings and artifacts that we clean up after."

"Hold up, Suit Boy. Correct me if I'm wrong but did you just say alien? 'Cause that's a little weird," Buffy asked with a confused look on her face. Yeah, so she hunted demons and vamps, but for some reason she couldn't buy the whole alien thing. Of course, that might explain Mr. Ugly before she was tranqued last night.

"Yes, I did just say aliens," he replied with a small smile on his face. "Of course, we may have to correct that explanation, seeing as it dropped you here and you don't appear to be a time-lost person."

"Get a lot of those?" she asked as she swung her legs idly as he nodded. "Look, I don't think I got your name and I don't think I can keep calling you Suit Boy forever."

"Yes, well you wouldn't be the first American to call me a demeaning nickname," he teased gently as he perched himself across from her on the desk. "My name is Ianto Jones."

"Mr. Jones…nice."

"You can call me Ianto. Mr. Jones makes me look around for my father."

"I'll call you Ianto as long as you don't call me Miss Summers. Reminds me too much of that creep Snyder." Buffy fell silent, lost again in the memories of the world she had left behind. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she jumped and saw Ianto looking at her with a concerned look on his face. She felt the tears pricking at the back of her eyes but she refused to give into them a second time.

"I'm fine," she told him as she shrugged off his hand. He only gave her a look that conveyed his disbelief, but remained blessedly silent.

"So…what exactly is this place?" she asked just to end the awkward silence. "Do you all have a special name or are you just 'We hunt aliens and talk with tweedy accents'?" He cocked an eyebrow at her, but answered her question.

"We're Torchwood. I'll let Jack talk to you about the details, but all you need to know right now is that we'll make sure that you're taken care of." Buffy didn't know how to respond to that, so she gave him a small smile of thanks.

From up above in the glass paneled conference room, Jack watched the two of them talk with Gwen beside him.

"What are we going to do with her, Jack?" she asked as she twirled a strand of hair around her fingers. "I mean, she doesn't have anywhere to go and we can't just let her loose on the city."

"I don't know, Gwen. I honestly don't know," Jack answered her as Ianto said something that made the girl smile sadly. Whoever this Buffy Summers girl was, she was a puzzle and Jack hated puzzles that posed a risk to his team—which was almost every puzzle they came across. Oh sure, there was the thrill in solving it but at the risk of hurting one of his team members.

"She seems to be bonding with Ianto," Gwen commented and Jack could only nod. Ianto hadn't been there for very long and had remained closed off from the rest of the team. Even Jack, who could claim he knew Ianto the best, knew very little about the youngest member of the team.

"I'll talk to her and we'll go from there," Jack finally told the newest member of the team as he left the office. The girl looked up at the sound of the door opening and he wondered how she did that. Most people, OK, lets make that all members of the team barely noticed the soft sound of the door.

"So how do you like the Hub?" he asked her as he gestured to the area around him.

"It's nice," she answered. "Sure beats a high school library. Where did you get those computers? We don't have anything like those at home."

"What year was it when you left?" Jack asked her curiously. It wouldn't be the first time they'd had someone drop in from another time.

"1998. Why?" she asked before realizing the answer for herself. "Ok, so not only am I in a different dimension, but I'm also in the future. Why can't anything normal ever happen to me?"

"What do you mean by that?" Jack seized on the last statement, determined to get something out of this girl.

"Oh you know, accidently burning down a high school gym, living in a town with gang problems, falling into a portal, things like that," she replied flippantly.

"Why do I have a feeling you're not telling me the whole truth?" Jack challenged her as he crossed his arms and stared at her. Jack prided himself on being able to tell when he was being lied to and this girl was setting off all of the alarms.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?" she replied returning his stare look for look. "I'm just here by accident, honest."

"Then how were you able to beat that Weevil when we first saw you?" This came from Owen, who had come to join Jack and Ianto around the girl. "That not humanly possible."

"Five servings of fruits and veggies?" she answered with a valley girl lilt to her voice that made it sound like a question. "Really," she added when she saw the incredulous looks the three men were giving her. "Look, if we're going to be playing a game of twenty questions, shouldn't we start with the basics, like, oh, what's your age, favorite activities, astrological sign and stuff like that?"

"Fine then Buffy, how old are you?" Jack asked through clenched teeth. How could someone this young throw him off his game so much. Normally he had people eating out of the palm of his hand with a smile and a flirty look, but this girl seemed immune to him.

"OK, I'm seventeen, I'm a Capricorn and I like long walks during the evening. Oh, wait, no fair with me only knowing Ianto's name here. You know my name but I don't know yours," she pouted. Jack only sighed.

"This here is Owen Harper, our resident doctor. Over there by the computers is Toshiko Sato our tech wizard. Next to me is Gwen Cooper our newest addition. Ianto you already know, he keeps everything running smoothly around here. And I," he added with a flourish, "am Captain Jack Harkness, head of Torchwood."

"Buffy Summers, high school junior and displaced person," she replied giving Jack a bright grin. "Now that we have the meet and greet out of the way, care to tell me what this Torchwood business is besides dealing with aliens?"

Jack gritted his teeth. "I think it's time that we got some answers out of you Buffy," he answered her. "How exactly did you end up falling through that portal?" A guarded look flitted over Buffy's face.

"I was fighting with my ex when it opened up behind him and he fell through. I tried to get out of the way but the backlash caught me before I could get clear of the energy," she told them in a suddenly dead voice. "I was transported to this place that was like…like hell. I couldn't see my ex anywhere and these things kept attacking me. I kept fighting and fighting until I saw this light which I guess lead me here." There, it was the truth, or at least part of it. No reason they needed to know about the Slayer now, or ever for that matter.

Jack eyed the blonde in front of him, not sure how much of the truth she was actually telling him. "You aren't going to tell us how you took out that Weevil are you?" he asked her after she had been silent for a few moments, apparently lost in her memories.

"Adrenaline rush," she replied in a monotone. "I'd been fighting so long, it was just second nature to me I guess." There again, the truth but not all of it. In all her time lying to her mom she'd learned that was the best way to go. Oh God…she was never going to see her again. Involuntary tears started to trickle down her face again and she buried it in her hands.

"I think that's enough questioning for now, sir," Ianto broke in as he put his arm around Buffy's shoulders. Jack nodded and Ianto lead Buffy to the couch at the entrance of the Hub. Buffy sat down and rubbed her arms in a vain attempt to warm herself up after suddenly feeling cold.

"Where am I going to go?" she asked him in a quiet voice while looking down at her hands. "It's not like I can just stay here. I have no money, no family, nothing." She felt a panic start to hit her and began breathing faster and faster. "What am I going to do? I'm not even eighteen yet, I'm still a minor…" Ianto interrupted her mid-rant with an upraised hand.

"Don't worry about that right now, Buffy," he reassured her. "Try to get some rest and I'll let you know what we decide when you wake up. There's no use in working yourself up into a panic." Buffy nodded. Ianto reminded her of her mother in her infamous "take charge" mode, where she could turn any situation around in a matter of moments. Lying down, Buffy closed her eyes and tried to get her breathing into the relaxation pattern Giles had taught her. Funny how her thoughts always seemed to turn back to them.

Ianto watched Buffy as her breathing evened out and she appeared to fall asleep. He then quietly walked away towards Jack's office, where his boss had overseen the entire sequence of events.

"What are we going to do with her, sir?" Ianto asked as soon as he entered the room. "I doubt we can do what we would normally do with time-displaced peoples."

"Why not, Ianto?" Jack challenged "She's time-displaced, she said so herself." Ianto just gave his boss one of his patented "I disapprove" looks and stayed silent. Jack rolled his eyes. "As much as I hate to say this, I agree. There's too much we don't know about her to let her go. Even if we Retconned her, I still would feel nervous letting her loose on Cardiff. Look at what she did to that Weevil!"

"And there's the fact that she's obviously broken in spirit and I doubt any amount of Retcon can fix that," Ianto added as he stuck his hands in his pockets and continued to stare at Jack. "Jack, this girl needs more than what we would normally do."

"What exactly do you suggest we do, Ianto?" Jack asked as he leaned on his overflowing desk.

"We keep her here," Ianto told him simply. "Owen will surely want to study her some more and I'm sure there are ways he can do so discreetly; you want to keep her off the streets until we discover what exactly she is and this way we can monitor her at all times."

"Do we really want her around the Hub if we can't be certain we trust her? What if she turns out to be a plant by some species that wants to weaken our defenses in order to invade?"

"What if she's a magical being designed to murder philandering husbands and create a safe world for puppies and kittens?" Ianto countered. Jack looked at him appraisingly. He had never seen Ianto defend anyone or anything like he defended Buffy. "There's a risk with anything involved with the Rift, but it doesn't mean we should automatically assume the worst. Jack, this girl is going through post-traumatic stress, how can you not see it?" That was it then. Although Ianto never talked about the aftermath of the Battle of Canary Warf, he knew that the following weeks had been hard on the young man. He wondered if Ianto had been in the same state that Buffy Summers was now in.

"Very well, we'll keep her here," Jack finally conceded. Ianto did have a point after all about keeping a better eye on her here than if she was roaming the streets of Cardiff. "But you're responsible for her. That means if she does something that endangers this team, I'm holding you responsible."

"Very wel,l sir," Ianto replied. "I'll take her to my flat after she wakes up and help get her settled. I am going to need Tosh's help in order to enroll her in school. I'm going to need to get credible transcripts from her 'former' high school."

"Do whatever you need to do within limits in order to get her settled. Let her know what the plan is as soon as she wakes up," Jack told Ianto. Ianto nodded and left the room and headed to the Archives. Jack wearily ran a hand over his face and walked to the window to study the sleeping girl. She was a mystery, one he was determined to crack.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my textbooks.

**AN:** Thank you to those who've reviewed, and to RevDorothyL for betaing this for me!

* * *

Feeling someone touch her arm, Buffy started awake, thinking for a moment she was still in Hell. She reached blindly for the being that woke her up before remembering she was no longer there and instead was back in the somewhat real world. Sheepishly she looked at the unfortunate soul who she'd nearly attacked. Gwen looked at her with a shocked expression on her face.

"Sorry 'bout that," Buffy apologized with a slightly ashamed tilt of her head. "I just got used to going into survival mode if anyone touches me when I'm napping." Gwen just nodded, seemingly unsure what to make of this information. Buffy sighed. "Any reason you woke me from my nap or was it just to test my reaction time."

"Jack and Ianto wanted to talk to you," Gwen told Buffy as she finally found her voice. "Something about getting you settled."

"Oh, that," Buffy replied, suddenly deflated. Just another reminder that there was a good chance she might not see home again. "Well, let's get this over with." Buffy followed the taller woman towards the glass office-thingy that she'd noticed before. Entering, she noticed Jack and Ianto talking to each other quietly before noticing she and Gwen had arrived. Gwen looked like she wanted to stay, but the look Jack sent her caused her to frown slightly and leave the room. No one said anything as Jack and Ianto both looked at Buffy.

"Gweny said you wanted to talk to me," Buffy began, hoping to break the awkward silence.

"Gweny?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. "Do you give everyone you meet nicknames?" Buffy could see through his ploy to try and make her relax, but she decided to play along with it to see what he was going to tell her.

"Of course," she answered, giving him a small smile. "Regular names are so boring most of the time. How do you think I ended up with Buffy instead of plain Elizabeth? Ianto's name is unique enough to escape the nicknamage for now, but it could change. Again, you wanted to see me about something?"

"Under normal circumstances, what we do to people who find out about Torchwood is Retcon them to erase their memories about …"

"No one is touching my memories," Buffy interrupted as she leapt away from the men suddenly. "You try and mess with my head, you'll regret it. My memories are all I have left of home and I'm not going to lose them!" She backed away from them slowly, trying to find the door behind her.

"If you would let me finish, I was going to go over the other option we might use with someone in your position would be to try to integrate them into normal life. For obvious reason, we can't really do that. So," he paused and gave her a look that she couldn't really interpret. "Ianto here has volunteered to be your legal guardian and take care of you."

Jack watched the shocked reactions on both Ianto and Buffy's faces. OK, so he had slightly modified Ianto's original offer, but it basically amounted to the same thing. Ianto recovered the fastest, quickly hiding his shock under his normally calm façade. Buffy's face, however, was an interesting study in conflicting emotions. Hope, fear, sadness and something Jack couldn't quite identify all kept continuously flitting across her face.

Buffy couldn't believe what Jack Harkness had just told her. Suit Boy was, for all intents and purposes, her parent. Given the quickly hidden shocked look, he hadn't expected to be appointed into guardianage of her. "This is so you can monitor me isn't it?" she asked Jack with a pointed glance. "You don't trust me."

"No, I don't," he told her frankly. "You drop in out of the Rift, you manage to beat a Weevil senseless without breaking a sweat, and you refuse to give us a direct answer to what you are."

"Hey, mister, I've answered all of your questions," Buffy protested. Yeah, so they had been a roundabout, loopy sort of way, but she'd still answered them! It wasn't like the SAT where they penalized you for guessing, was it? There was a part of her that wanted to refuse this offer, but this place might be the best chance she had of finding her way back home.

"What does Ianto being my guardian mean?" She didn't want to be too much of a problem for him, especially since she planed to book it back to her home dimension as soon as they found a way to send her there.

"Torchwood will help him handle your expenses, but he's going to be responsible for housing and feeding you, as well as making sure you go to school." Buffy made a face when she heard this. The whole school thing was not high on her list of priorities. At least there wouldn't be random vamps chowing down on the students and no forces of evil to deliver a beat down to on a daily basis.

"Not a big fan of school are you?" Jack asked, seeing her face.

"Me and schools are kinda un-mixy things," she told him before the brain filterage kicked in, the Hemery gym and frequent destruction of Sunnyhell flashing before her eyes. "It's not my fault though," she added hastily. "There've always been other circumstances, like faulty wiring and gangs on PCP." She sucked at the whole secret identity thing. Maybe she should just wear a shirt that said "Hello, Slayer here. Please attack."

"School's almost over for the year here, so we'll see where you are and enroll you for the fall. It's non-negotiable," Jack told her with a stern look on his face as Buffy scrunched her nose. "Talk to Tosh tomorrow and we'll get you documented here."

"She can do that?" Buffy asked. "Doesn't the government, I don't know, get mad?"

"We're beyond the government. It allows us to do what's necessary in order to protect the world."

"Nifty."

"Now, however, Ianto's going to take you back to his flat and help get you settled. I'll see you both later."

"He's bossy isn't he?" Buffy commented to Ianto as he led her back into the main area of the Hub. "It seems like he says jump and, well, you know."

"Well, there are certain privileges of being the boss," Ianto said as he lead her to the garage. He would show her the other entrances some other day, possibly tomorrow. "The other side Buffy," he corrected her as she reached for the driver's side door out of instinct. She made a face and quickly walked over to the other side. Ianto shook his head and started the car.

The ride to his flat was short and uneventful. Fortunately, he had a spare room in case he ever needed it. He would worry about clothes tomorrow; right now, however, he needed to get Buffy settled and figure out a way to get back to Torchwood to check in on Lisa.

"You certainly go for the whole 'less is more' deal," Buffy commented as she scanned the neat, bare apartment. There were very few personal touches scattered around, mostly confined to the odd knick-knack arranged with martial precision. If there were any photographs, they were hidden in a place Buffy couldn't easily see them.

"This will be your room," Ianto told her as he opened one of the doors that lead off the small hallway. The room was as neat and Spartan as the rest of the place, with a bed, desk and bookshelf all neatly arrayed. "The bathroom is the first door on the left. I have some old sweats that you can change into if you wish to freshen up. I'll take you shopping tomorrow for new clothes." Buffy only nodded silently, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Ianto left for a moment and returned with a neatly folded pile of clothes.

Ianto left her to shower and he sat down on the nearest couch, taking stock of the strange and sudden twist his life had taken. He blamed Gwen. She had to make the comment about how boring their day was. Ianto knew he was being slightly irrational, but his life had changed from simply worrying about Lisa to that and caring for a dimensionally challenged American with an even worse penchant for nicknames than Jack.

Ianto was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't register Buffy leaving the bathroom for a few moments. "Earth to Ianto, you there?" Buffy's voice broke through his thoughts. Starting, he looked at her and had to choke back a laugh at the sight of her in his clothes. He wasn't a big man by any stretch of the imagination, but she was swimming in the clothes.

"Yes?" he replied as he managed to keep a straight face.

"I just wanted to say, well, thanks. I know Jack kinda shoved the whole guardianship thing on you, but just, well, thanks for everything today." She gave him a small smile and shuffled back into her room. Ianto looked after her with an indescribable look on his face.

~*~*~

"_Buffy?" Buffy looked up in shock as she heard the familiar voice of Angel whisper her name. He stood there, right before her, with a small smile on his face. For a moment she thought it was Angelus toying with her again, but the way he was looking at her was all Angel._

"_Angel? What's going on?" she asked him confusedly. He said nothing but walked towards her and cupped her cheek._

"_Surprised?" he asked in a low voice. Buffy nodded as she felt the tears form in her eyes. He leaned in and gave her a long, slow, gentle kiss._

"_I'm sorry," she whispered after they broke apart for air. "I killed you." Tears started falling now and she resisted the urge to sniffle._

"_Shh, it's OK," he reassured her as he pulled her closer to comfort her. Gradually, she relaxed into his strong embrace and inhaled the scent that was uniquely him. Suddenly his face changed, his features distorting and eyes changing to yellow. Buffy screamed and tried to break free but his arms held her fast. "Let me return the favor," he said right before he bit her._

"No!" Buffy screamed as she shot straight up in the bed. Her eyes darted frantically around the room as she tried to get her racing heartbeat under control. After a few moments, she calmed down and slowly pried her hands from the sheets that she had been holding in a death grip.

"Buffy?" came the muffled voice from behind her door. She mentally cursed herself. She didn't mean to wake up Ianto with her reaction. "Are you alright?"

"Peachy with some extra keen," she managed to say in a somewhat normal voice. She could almost imagine the small frown crossing his face and prayed that he wouldn't open the door to check on her himself. Finally, she heard him walk away and his door close softly as he returned to his own room. She let out the breath she had been holding in and collapsed back on to the bed. Before she could stop herself, she began sobbing into her pillow so that Ianto wouldn't hear her.

She woke up the next morning to sunlight seeping through the blinds and hitting her face. "Mmm, it's too early," Buffy muttered as she burrowed deeper into the bed. In the distance, she could hear someone, hopefully Ianto, moving around in what could be the kitchen. Groaning softly, she extricated herself from the tangle of blankets and quietly made her way to the kitchen, where the blessed, absolutely sacred smell of coffee was coming from.

The kitchen was almost minuscule but it was arranged with the same order and precision of the rest of the apartment. "Morning, Ianto," she greeted as she tried to stop herself from drooling at the fresh pot of coffee. It had been too long since she'd had her last caffeine fixage.

"Good morning," he replied, looking up from the laptop that sat on the counter separating the kitchenette from the rest of the apartment. Looking at Ianto, Buffy felt even more scruffy and worn out than she had earlier. Even though it was only 9:30 (Way, way, way too early by her standards after everything she'd been through. Damn screwed up Slayer sleep cycle), he was immaculately dressed in stylish, yet casual clothing. "Help yourself to the coffee."

Ianto knew certain Americans had addictions to coffee, he was fond of the drink himself, but he had never seen anyone move that quickly to pour and inhale a cup of it.

"Oh my God, this is amazing!" Buffy sighed, emerging from the mug long enough to breathe before finishing it and pouring another. "I don't know what coffee magic you worked, but this is so good."

"I'm glad you approve."

Feeling slightly more Buffyesque after her morning jolt, she noticed that Ianto had placed a loaf of bread, some butter and jam by the toaster. "Any plans for today?" she asked him as she made her breakfast.

"I was going to take you shopping for some new clothes. Gwen dropped by earlier and left some of her clothes to wear for today. They'll be a little big on you," he added, eyeing her small frame critically.

"Shopping would be of the good," she replied before dedicating herself to polishing off her breakfast in record time. Not really eating for a couple of months made you realize how much you missed the good ole basic necessity of life. "There'll be shoes involved right?" she added eagerly. Ianto took in her expectant face and nodded warily. "Good, because Lord knows I need a new pair. Or several." Buffy left the room humming happily at the thought of the bargain hunt ahead, while Ianto resisted the urge to groan. What had he gotten himself into? At least Torchwood was footing the bill.

~*~*~

"Oh, look at that pair!" Buffy squealed as she ogled a pair of boots in a store window. Ianto resisted the urge to sigh. They had been shopping for almost four hours at this point and he had somehow ended up being the carrier of Buffy's purchases.

"I think that's enough shoes for now, Buffy," he told her as he gently grabbed her arm and led her away towards his car. "I do need to go to work sometime this week." Buffy pouted but followed Ianto after giving the boots one last, longing look.

"I'm going to leave you at my flat to put away your clothes and pick you up when I do a dinner run for the team in a few hours. Does that work for you?" Buffy nodded and stared out the window.

"Why are you doing this for me?" she asked suddenly, looking at Ianto out of the corner of her eye. "I mean, you're putting me up and taking me shopping and putting up with me in general?"

"That's what Torchwood does for people in your situation."

"I didn't mean Torchwood, Ianto. I meant you. You made sure I had food, I'm guessing you stood up to Captain Suspenders yesterday and you put up with me shopping. Why?" she asked again, finally turning around to look at him. Thankfully before he could answer they had reached his flat. He helped her quickly unload the various bags and made his escape to Torchwood going over Buffy's words in his head.

~*~*~

"Ianto, are you feeling OK?" Tosh asked her coworker hesitantly. He had been hours late, which he had never done before in all of his time at Torchwood Three, but he also appeared to be in some sort of shock. "Ianto…"

"I knew women liked shopping, but that was unbelievable," he said in an amused voice, Tosh's question apparently shaking him out of his stupor. "Did you know there are over ten shoe stores within a kilometer radius of my flat and we managed to go to every single one, as well as a variety of clothing stores."

"Wait a minute," Tosh interrupted him with an upraised hand. "You were late because you took Buffy shopping?" Ianto nodded as he made his way to the coffee machine to make Jack an incredibly delayed morning cup. Tosh followed him and leaned on a table next to him. "I know you said you would help get her settled, but isn't that a bit much?"

Before Ianto could respond to Tosh's question, Jack's voice drifted down from the stairs above him. "I know I told you to get her some new clothes, but that didn't mean buy every single thing that's wearable in the city."

"I tried, sir," Ianto replied mournfully as he handed Jack his coffee. "I don't know if she's always like that or if she was using it as some sort of therapy, but I doubt even you could rein her in." Jack only sighed as he sipped his first Ianto-made cup of the day.

"Oh, Ianto, before I forget, I got started on creating an identity for Buffy this morning," Tosh said as she lead Ianto to her desk and handed him a folder. Ianto flipped it open to find a sheet of paper detailing where she had lived previously in California, as well as giving him a familial tie through a non-existant maternal cousin. "I'm going to put more details in once I get a chance to talk to her, but I figured I might as well start when I could." Ianto nodded and gave her a small smile before heading back to the tourist office.

Before he realized it, dinnertime had arrived and he was off again to his flat to collect Buffy. He opened the door to his flat only to find her sitting at the table staring vacantly into space. She started when she noticed him but quickly collected herself.

"I was wondering when you'd show up, Coffee God," she said as she grabbed the purse and jacket she'd bought earlier that day. "I don't know if the whole institutionalized thing works for you but it gives me the wiggins."

"Coffee God?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, choosing to overlook the comment about his décor. He happened to like the spare, uncluttered look of the flat.

"That coffee this morning was so good, it could only be made by a god of coffee," she explained as they made their way to the Chinese restaurant where Ianto had ordered the team dinner. "Besides, I was getting bored with Suit Boy as an alternative to your name."

"I thought you said I would be spared from the nicknames."

"I changed my mind. Is that not allowed?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head. Ianto didn't reply, but kept driving silently. "Oh, you have Chinese food here. I'm a fan." By the time they reached Torchwood, Buffy had lapsed into silence again, staring out the window while holding the almost overflowing box of Chinese food in her lap.

"That better be dinner," Owen groaned as he spun around to see Buffy carrying the box followed closely by Ianto. "Thank God," he breathed as he lunged for the box. Buffy adroitly sidestepped him and gave him a glare.

"Don't even think about it, Harper," she snapped at him playfully, doing her best to hide the emptiness she was feeling. "You need to wait just like everyone else. Do I look like a Buffy-shaped vending machine?"

"No, but I'm hungry and you owe me for threatening my equipment yesterday."

"Wait a minute here, I owe you? You're the one who shot me up with sleepyjuice weren't you? If anything you owe me. Now move," she ordered with a narrowing of her eyes. "Before I make you." Owen shot her one last glare but stepped aside to let her pass. Buffy gave him a bright smile before depositing the meal on the conference table.

"So what did you order us, Ianto?" she asked as she reached for the first box. Her eyes widened and a grin blossomed on her face before she looked up. "I think I love you more than I did this morning," she announced before digging into the sweet and sour chicken, completely ignoring Owen's shout of "Hey, that's mine."

"Snooze you lose, Owen," she told him as she settled down in her chair and watched the rest of the team descend on the food. She noticed that Ianto held back and took whatever was left after the Torchwood feeding frenzy ended.

After dinner, everyone drifted back to their respective stations to finish up their work for the day, leaving Buffy sitting alone at the conference table. From there, she watched the four people bustle around while Jack observed from above. Watching them move around this alien space, Buffy couldn't believe she actually missed the Sunnydale library. She missed Xander and Giles and Willow and Oz. As a sign of how weird this new world was, she even kinda-sorta missed Cordy. Most of all though, she missed her mom.

How had she reacted when she hadn't come home? Did her mom think she ran away? Did she think she was dead? How long would the Scoobies look for her before they realized she was gone for good? Buffy felt tears starting to form in her eyes but bit her lip to stop herself from crying. Feeling overwhelmed and alone, she rested her head on her arms and let her tears fall where no one could see them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my pen.

**AN:** Thanks to those who've reviewed this story so far, and thank you to RevDorothyL for betaing for me. :D

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**Chapter Four**

"Is she still there?" Owen asked an hour later as he looked around for the snarky little blonde. Seeing that she was still hunched over the conference table, he snorted. "How was it that we got stuck watching her? If she's not human, we shouldn't be letting her out around Cardiff, even with our office boy as a chaperone. Why are we even giving her a chaperone or guardian, or whatever? Here I was thinking Torchwood captured aliens, when actually we're just glorified babysitters."

No one deigned to respond to Owen's comments, with Ianto only giving him a pointed look before returning to filing the paperwork that Jack had miraculously completed while he was shopping with Buffy.

"If you're going to be a babysitter, Harper, you'll need a pay-cut," came Buffy's voice from the open door of the conference room. Owen, Tosh and Gwen all whipped around to see Buffy still sitting at the table with her head lying on her arms. "Also, popping gum would be of the good."

"Excuse me?" Owen stuttered, surprised that she could hear him.

"I'm just trying to give you some tips if you're going to go for the whole babysitter vibe," she replied as she raised her head and gave him a look. No one commented on the lingering redness in her eyes, although Gwen looked like she wanted to give her a hug. "Don't diss what you haven't tried."

"Touché, Buffy," Ianto muttered under his breath, causing Owen to glare at him and Tosh to bite back a laugh.

"People actually let you take care of their kids? Not only that, but they paid you to watch their kids?"

"Yeah, it was a thing," she answered as she made her way down to join them. Owen opened his mouth to make another snarky comment, but changed his mind and bustled back to the medical station to give the sex life-form inside a closer look. "So, what's the what?" Everyone gave her a confused look. "What's going on?" she clarified as she moved next to Tosh. Something about the woman reminded her of Willow, and she instinctively gravitated towards it.

"Well, you can help me with this," Tosh offered as she pushed the file she had been working on towards Buffy. She opened it up and found that this was full of papers documenting the heretofore non-existent life of one Buffy Summers, now under the care of her maternal second cousin after the death of her parents.

"I didn't know what to put on your transcripts, so I decided to wait until I got a chance to talk to you," Tosh continued as Buffy nodded silently. Buffy Summers had grown up in the town of Santa Barbara, where her mother and father owned a local bookstore. They had died in a car accident, and Buffy had been sent to live with her mother's second cousin. She had attended Santa Barbara High School, but the transcript included was blank. Included in the file were a passport, driver's license (Buffy's mouth quirked up at this), and a fund supposedly set up by her parents in order to provide care for her.

"Where's this money coming from?" Buffy asked Tosh with a confused look on her face.

"We have a certain amount of funds we can use in instances like this," Tosh explained. "Most of the money will be going to Ianto to help care for you, but there will be a small portion put aside for you regularly, so that once you turn eighteen you have some money of your own."

"Thanks," Buffy said quietly, stunned at the amount of work that they were doing for her when really they could've just let her go on the Cardiff streets to fend for herself. She felt touched and a little bit guilty for not telling them the truth about her, but she still didn't fully trust them yet. Some part of her was waiting for the other shoe to drop and for this to all turn out to be some elaborate trap set for her by some mind-twisty demon who had it in for her.

"So, um, am I supposed to play fill-in-the-blanks with my transcript?" Buffy asked, trying to break the awkward silence that followed.

"Just let me know what classes you've taken and the grades received and I'll do the best I can," Tosh said as she handed Buffy a pen. Buffy bit her lip and wondered if she really wanted to share her grades with these people. She didn't exactly _fail_ any of her classes, but she wasn't mad Willow-smart either, and the impact Slaying had on her study-time showed. _Oh well,_ she mentally shrugged as she began writing in as much as she could remember. While she was doing this, she could feel Jack staring at her from the vantage point of his office and did her best to ignore it.

She was almost done when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she let out a gasp of surprise. "Was that…?" she asked Ianto with a half-formed sentence, pointing at the space above her where the creature had just been. "Was that a dinosaur?" Owen openly chuckled at her look of shock, while the rest of the team was more polite about it.

"Yes, that is our resident pterodactyl," Ianto told her. "Her name is Myfanwy, which is Welsh for 'my woman.'"

"Any particular reason you chose that name for your pet dinosaur?" Buffy asked, still more than slightly disturbed by the sight of the dinosaur. Seeing it drove home the idea that she was no longer in her dimension and was now someplace completely different. The ugly whom she had tangled with yesterday? Could have been just a new breed of demon she had never encountered before. This, however, was strange, even for her.

"I liked the sound of the name, and I like the song."

"Hold up, Ianto. It's also a song?" Buffy asked, as Ianto only shook his head at her and continued to go about his nightly tasks.

Soon the team was packing up and getting ready to do whatever it was they did at night. She watched them tidy up their stations and wondered idly how much longer she would be here tonight. The day was catching up with her and Buffy wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to hold her emotions at bay.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you it was rude to stare?" she asked out loud, directing her question to Jack, who had moved out of the office to the catwalk by the Rift thing. "You've been giving me the wiggins ever since dinner with all the stare-age."

"Maybe you're just so stare-worthy it's hard to look away," he countered as he made his way towards the stairs. Buffy recoiled and made a face.

"OK, eww with a side of icky," she complained as she tried to mentally cleanse herself. "You're like old enough to be my dad. Creepy much?" She knew it was probably said in good fun—she had seen how he interacted with the other members of the team when no one thought she'd been watching—but the consequences of her relationship with Angel were making her leery.

"I don't look that old!" he protested. "Do I look that old?" he asked Ianto, who wisely chose not to comment.

"All I know is that dating men who might be that old isn't high up on the list of smart career moves when you're my age. Leads to stationary rape allegations or things like that."

"I believe the correct term is 'statutory,'" Ianto gently corrected her as he held back a smile.

"That's what I meant. Or even, older women being all touchy-feely around guys my age" Buffy continued, taking Ianto's correcting in stride. The buggy substitute who'd tried to eat Xander immediately popped into her head and she had to swallow to keep herself from crying.

"You sound like you have some personal experience in this matter," Jack observed, determined to get as much information as possible out of this girl. Buffy just shrugged.

"Just going by what I hear," she replied nonchalantly. _And what I've seen and experienced,_ she added silently.

"As fascinating as this conversation is, it's time for us to go," Ianto interrupted at just the right moment. "Jack, why don't you show her the lift, since she hasn't seen it yet."

"Lift? What's the lift?" Buffy asked confusedly as Jack led her to a platform and helped her up. She started a bit when it began rising all of a sudden. "OK, that's special," she commented as they reached the ceiling, only to have it open and leave them at the base of the water tower. She looked at the people bustling around, enjoying the clear night while completely ignoring the two people who had just risen from somewhere belowground.

"Is there a reason they can't see us, or do they just have a particularly bad case of 'see and forget?'" Buffy asked Jack as they continued to watch the flow of people. If it was the whole rationalization-ally thing, then it must be even worse here than in Sunnydale.

"I could go with the technical explanation, but that's confusing even to me," Jack told her. "Basically, there's an invisibility cloak over this small spot that protects us from being seen. Step off"—he demonstrated—"and you magically appear in their perception."

"What's an invisibility cloak? Is it as self-explanatory as it sounds?" Buffy asked as they made their way to where Ianto had pulled the car up.

"Harry Potter?" he asked, as if it should be obvious to her. "Allows him to get into trouble without being seen."

"Ringing no bells here. Who's this Harry Potter kid? Or man? What age is he?" Buffy asked as Jack looked at her in shock.

"Ianto, do the girl a favor and buy her a complete set of the Harry Potter books and have her read them," Jack instructed "Immediately."

"I'll do my best," Ianto replied before he pulled away from the curb.

"Wait, make with the 'splainey' please," Buffy demanded. "What's so big about these books that Captain Flirts-a-lot insists that I read?"

"Harry Potter is a global phenomenon," Ianto explained, as he and Buffy drove home. "The final book is being released in a month and is probably the most anticipated book of all time. You might as well read them," he instructed as they pulled into the parking lot of his flat. "You'll stand out considerably, if you haven't read them."

"Are they really that good?" Buffy questioned.

"They may not be the greatest piece of literature ever written, but they do have something magical about them that attracts readers from every country and at all ages."

"Is the author human, or is he working some sorta alien mojo over the people?" Buffy asked as they made their way down the hall towards the apartment.

"As far as Torchwood Two has been able to discern, she's completely human," Ianto said, correcting her on the author's gender. "She's just a gifted writer, that's all."

"Huh," was Buffy's only reply to that.

"Actually, I have all six books, so I can lend you them, if you want," Ianto continued, looking away from Buffy. She looked at him closely. Were those tears in his eyes?

"Yeah, I think I'll give them a go," Buffy replied as she followed Ianto to his room. She paused for a moment at the door, unsure of whether she would be welcome to enter. She settled for hovering around the doorway, taking in the room that was just as neat and spare as the rest of the apartment. The sole exception to the whole deal was a box with the word "Lisa" written in neat block letters. Ianto went over to the box and pulled a book out.

"Here's the first one," he said quietly as he handed it to her. "Let me know when you've finished it, so I can get you the next one if you like it." Buffy looked at the cover, where the words "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" shone over the picture of a red train.

"Thanks, Ianto," she answered quietly, not sure what to make of this new addition to the picture she had in her head of Ianto. Who was Lisa? Why did Ianto have a box of her stuff stored untidily in his room?

"Is there anything else you need this evening, Buffy?" he asked as she moved towards her room. Buffy studied him for a moment before shaking her head.

"Nah, I'm good for now. You know," she added, turning to look back at him, "you never answered my question from this afternoon." Before he could answer, however, she went into her room and shut the door.

~*~*~

"_Promise you won't leave me again?" she asked Angel, who had once again invaded her dreams. She turned her head around and looked into his warm, soulful eyes._

"_Of course, Buffy," he answered, gently kissing the top of her head. They stood in silence by the water tower, silently watching the people go by without a care in the world. Then, a shiver passed through Angel, startling Buffy and causing her to turn when Angel spoke._

"_You had your chance to kill me," Angel whispered in her ear as he held her close in his strong arms. "Now let me have mine." His eyes glittered maliciously as he lowered his face to her neck…_

Buffy snapped awake, gasping for air and reflexively reaching for the spot on her neck where the dream-Angel had bitten her. Luckily for her, this time she didn't scream and wake Ianto. She didn't know how long she lay there waiting for sleep to come again, but it wasn't working. With a low growl she reached for the lamp beside her and switched it on before picking up the book Ianto had lent her.

"Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived," she began reading. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal…"

When Ianto woke up later that morning, he noticed the light in Buffy's room was on. He knocked softly, before quietly cracking the door when he got no response. Peering in, he smiled at the scene before him. Buffy lay curled up on the bed with "Harry Potter" falling out of her hand. He let her sleep, only going in to quietly turn off the light. He would wake her up later.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my laptop.

**AN:** Thanks to all who have reviewed this story, and for those have added it to their favorite story lists. I really appreciate it. As always, thanks to RevDorothyL for betaing!

* * *

**Chapter Five**

Slowly, Buffy began adjusting to her new life in Cardiff. The second day, she had found out the name of the ugly she had tangled with: Weevil. When she heard that, she snorted and asked Jack why they couldn't come up with a more creative name, only to be rewarded with a glare. When she heard him call the thing "Janet," it was all she could do not to laugh in his face.

"Whatever happened to the sword I had with me when I came here?" she asked him on the way up from the vault. He gave her an appraising look, which she did her best to match.

"Why do you want to know?" he finally asked. Buffy shrugged.

"Guess I just feel attached to it, that's all," she answered, giving more of the truth than she normally did. "It did kinda save my life and all when I was in that hell place."

"It's in the armory, where all of our weapons go," he replied shortly, and left it at that. Buffy followed him, slightly sad that she had no idea where the armory was and was unlikely to find out in the near future. She didn't need the sword for anything in particular right now, but it would've been nice to see the last bit of her old home.

She still had nightmares most nights that left her gasping for air and too unsettled to go back to sleep right away. She was sure Ianto noticed, but he was discreet enough not to talk to her about it. She was grateful for that; she didn't want to talk about the guilt she still felt for both Angel and Kendra's deaths and the feeling that Angel was haunting her somehow.

"Have you been getting enough sleep?" Gwen asked her about a week after she'd arrived, seeing Buffy yawn for the a third time in less than five minutes.

"Yep," Buffy lied. She always fell back to sleep eventually, but it normally took her reading a few pages of "Harry Potter" to calm her down. Surprisingly for her, she was actually enjoying reading for once. Ianto had been right about the books—there was something magical about the way this J.K. Rowling woman crafted her world of witches and wizards.

"You just look tired," Gwen persisted as she followed Buffy from the couch to the small desk which Buffy had commandeered as her own soon after her arrival. There wasn't a whole lot in the way of clutter on the desk—mainly just a computer and a growing collection of movies and books the Torchwood team kept recommending to her so she wouldn't stand out due to her lack of current pop culture knowledge.

"Gwen, as much as I appreciate the concern, I'm fine," Buffy reiterated as she thanked whatever God existed in this place that Gwen lacked the equivalent of Willow's resolve face. As nice as the Torchwood team seemed, Buffy wasn't ready to do the whole secret spillage yet. From what she could tell by watching their interactions with each other, their entire lives were based on secrets, with the whole secret governmental agency thing going on.

That day, Buffy felt particularly antsy. Normally, in good ol' Sunnydale, she would have worked off her extra energy by training with Giles or by going on patrol, but both options were out of the picture here.

"Is there any place around here where a girl can lift some weights?" she asked Ianto later that day, as she held stuff for him to put away in the Archives. "I'm kinda turning into antsy girl over here."

"There's a small gym where agents have worked out in the past," Ianto told her as he finished organizing the newest batch of artifacts. "If you'd like, I can freshen it up today so that it can be used tomorrow."

"I can help," Buffy volunteered. Normally, she wouldn't go near anything like cleaning, but she was so full of energy right now that she needed to do something physical, or else she felt like she might burst.

"Well, I'm not sure…" Ianto began before Buffy interrupted him.

"Look, Ianto, it's no biggie. It's not like I have anything else I should be doing," she said. "I need to do something besides reading or watching movies, or I'll go 'boom'." She mimed the explosion with her hands for Ianto's benefit. "Please?" she pouted as she looked up at him.

"Very well," he gave in. "Let me check in with Jack to make sure there's nothing pressing that needs to be done first." Buffy nodded and made her way over to Tosh to see what she was doing. She got along with Tosh the best, probably because she just let Buffy be, without asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions or making cutting remarks both behind her back and to her face. The other woman looked up and gave Buffy a small smile when she saw her approaching.

"Whatcha doing, Tosh?" Buffy asked as she sat down and looked over her shoulder.

"Right now I'm scanning for traces of Rift particles, to see if there's an artifact that might have fallen through before we could catch it," Tosh explained as her eyes flicked over the steady stream of information on her computer screen. "You never know if you've gathered everything, because so much just comes through the Rift."

"Sounds…fun," Buffy said, trying to muster up some enthusiasm for what actually sounded like a really boring job, almost as bad as going through those old books Giles had in English so archaic, she was sure it was another language altogether. Sitting around all day looking for weird energy blips? Not so much with fun having there.

"It's more interesting than it sounds," Tosh said, turning to face the blonde teenager. "We find a lot of our most intriguing stuff this way, and it helps us make sure that none of the dangerous stuff ends up causing problems for Cardiff later on. You never know what exactly will turn up."

"Like a glove that raises people from the dead and makes the person who uses it go completely bonkers," Owen chimed in, as he dropped into his seat across from Tosh's station. "Wouldn't want to think of that beauty out of Torchwood hands."

"What?" Buffy asked, a confused look on her face. "You guys have a magical life-granting glove? That's random."

"It's a long story," Jack broke in, coming to join the rest of the team. "Let's just say that that glove will never be used again by anyone on this team. Got anything for me, Tosh?" he asked.

"Nothing big so far, Jack, but I can keep the program running the rest of the day to see if it picks up anything," she told him. "If anything comes up, you'll be the first to know."

"Works for me." Jack left them and Buffy let out a quiet sigh of relief. While most of the Torchwood team seemed to accept her as just another teenage girl, albeit one who needed to be trained in the mysterious ways of the internet, Jack continued to watch her when he thought that she wouldn't notice it. She had thought about saying something to him about it again, but she figured it wouldn't stop him. Ever since that first day, she had been careful not to show any of her Slayer strength and would downplay the extent of her heightened senses.

"Has she shown any sign that she's anything other than human?" Jack asked Ianto later that day in his office. Ianto had come in to give Jack some paperwork that needed to be completed and Jack had cornered him on the newest stray Torchwood had taken in.

"Nothing," Ianto answered as he stood awkwardly in front of Jack. "She's acted like a normal teenage girl ever since she moved in with me. There's been no sign that she's a threat to us. Even when she was helping me set up the exercise room downstairs, she didn't appear to use more than average strength for someone her size." Jack sighed in frustration. No matter how she acted, he couldn't shake the feeling that Buffy was something more than what she appeared to be.

"Just keep an eye on her, Ianto," he instructed, wiping his hand tiredly over his face. Everything was changing too quickly for him, and he could barely keep a grasp on things. First Gwen discovering Torchwood, then finding out about the murders Suzie had committed, and now this.

"Very well, sir," Ianto replied, and he quickly exited Jack's office. Jack was tempted to forget about the paperwork and see if he could track the Doctor again, but Tosh's voice interrupted him.

"Jack, I'm picking up traces of Rift energy on the move," she called out, her fingers flying over the computer keys.

"Owen, Gwen, with me," Jack shouted as he grabbed his coat and raced towards the SUV. Gwen and Owen both raced towards the lift, leaving Buffy staring at them wistfully. She wanted to go chase some weird piece of alien tech, if only for the adrenaline rush and the feeling of actually doing something useful. Since she couldn't actually go with Owen and Gwen, she settled for the next best thing. Pulling up a chair, she watched eagerly over Tosh's shoulder at the images of Gwen, Owen, and the mysterious alien-gizmo carrier race through the streets of Cardiff.

"Can you identify the target?" Jack's voice called out from the speakers by Tosh's computers.

"Still trying to get a visual…twenty seconds to contact," Tosh replied, rapidly switching from one CCTV angle to another. "Fifteen seconds."

Buffy turned around to see where Ianto was, and saw him staring at the screen with a longing look on his face. "Do you ever go with them?" Buffy asked as she moved away from the monitor, where Tosh was still giving directions to the three agents in the field, towards him.

"No," Ianto replied with a shake of his head. "I take care of work within the Hub, and they take care of work outside the Hub. The system works well that way. Now, then," he continued, completely changing the topic. "I think I might have located some of the pieces of equipment you suggested for the exercise room." Before Ianto could show Buffy the equipment, however, her enhanced hearing caught the distinct whisper of Gwen's shocked voice:

"I've just seen a ghost."

_Huh,_ Buffy thought to herself as she went back to Tosh's station. _Maybe this place isn't so different from Sunnydale after all._

~*~*~

"It was as real as this is. More real," Gwen insisted as she stood by Tosh's computer with Jack, trying to figure out exactly what happened to her. Buffy hung back slightly, wondering if Gwen had been possessed by some restless spirit trying to find peace.

"You sure you weren't possessed?" Buffy asked, causing everyone in the room to give her a weird look. "What?" she asked, with a shrug of her shoulders. "It's been heard of before."

"Right, because possession is so incredibly common," Owen replied snarkily from the autopsy pit. Buffy shot him a glare, but stayed silent, not wanting to draw even more attention to herself. "Me, I think Gwen's going a little crazy. Stress of the job must be getting to her faster than the rest of us."

"I wasn't hallucinating, Owen," Gwen snapped at him in frustration. "I'm telling you, it was like I was in his brain, experiencing everything he was feeling and thinking at the time."

"So, let me get this straight," Jack said, turning the device over in his hands as he spoke. "You pushed this button, which caused the apparition moment?" Gwen nodded and Jack made to push the button.

"No!" everyone screamed out in unison, causing Jack to grin roguishly.

"As if," he said, getting and walking over to Tosh's station. "Where do we stand on finding these guys, Tosh?" he asked.

"Finding the man you chased should be easy, given the amount of CCTV footage we have of him," Tosh told him. It still weirded Buffy out, the amount that the Brits monitored the people living there. "The little boy? You said there was a name on the card around the little boy's neck?"

"Flanagan," Gwen recalled, eyes narrowed with thought. "Tom Erasmus Flanagan." Buffy snorted quietly under her breath. At least his parents had been kind and hadn't given him Erasmus as his first name, unlike poor Giles and his tweedy name. She felt the familiar pang of sadness that came whenever she thought of her friends in Sunnydale, almost missing out on Owen's response to Jack's request to look up records on Flanagan.

"Flanagan, Thomas Erasmus. 74 Brynaeron Terrace, Butetown," he called out from the pit, causing all of the members of Torchwood to turn and look at him in confusion. "He's in the phonebook," Owen answering the unasked question by hoisting said book.

"Right then," Jack said. "Owen, since you found the address, you can go with Gwen to talk to him." Gwen nodded and waited for Owen to grab his jacket before heading to the parking lot. "Tosh, I want a full diagnostic scan on this thing. I want to know what it is and if it poses any threat to us. Also, try to find our guy from last night."

"On it, Jack," Tosh called back, bringing up a variety of different programs on her computer. Jack went back into his office, leaving Buffy with nothing in particular to do.

"Need help with anything, Ianto?" she asked him after she had tracked him down to one of the lower levels. He looked startled when he initially saw her, but he quickly put on his normal impassive mask.

"I need to go get lunch for the team," he told her as he led her out of the dark tunnels. "You're welcome to come if you want."

"Sounds good to me," she answered as she waved good-bye to Tosh. "Getting some fresh air every now and then is a good thing," she continued with a straight face. "Sometimes I don't think I get enough of this bracing Welsh air, being stuck in the Hub all day." Ianto gave her a small smile as he followed her to the car park.

"Why did you ask Gwen if she had been possessed?" he asked her as they neared the restaurant where he normally went for the team's lunches. He had been wondering about that ever since she had posed that question.

Buffy gave a small shrug. "I read something about a person who claimed they'd been possessed and forced to act out the ghost's last moments, so that the ghost could find peace," she lied. "Sounded kinda close to what happened to Gwen," she offered, at Ianto's incredulous look. "Just drive," she pouted.

~*~*~

By the time they returned to the Hub, Gwen and Owen had returned from visiting Flanagan, and Jack had discovered who their mystery man with the tech was.

"…Sean Harris, aka Bernie," he announced to the team, handing Gwen a photo of Bernie to put up on the wall and Tosh a file to go through.

"And what he's doing with an alien machine is anyone's guess. Nineteen years old. String of convictions – burglary, shoplifting, credit cards…" Ianto and Buffy were going around the room, handing people their lunch orders. Owen had taken his without even a grunt of acknowledgement, while Tosh gave her a polite smile and quiet thanks.

"Do warn me if he's dropping in," Ianto deadpanned, handing Jack his lunch. She ate quietly as the team discussed the misadventures of Bernie Harris.

"Got anywhere on the mystery object?" Owen asked.

"Alien, of course…Gorgeous nanotechnology, makes NASA look like Toys 'R' Us," Jack answered, looking at the device almost reverently.

"Wait, it's alien? " Buffy asked with a look of mock shock on her face. "I never would've guessed, seeing as this place is all Scooby-Doo, only alien-style and Welsh."

"You think you're funny, don't you?" Jack asked as everyone on the room bit back a laugh.

"I think I'm adorable," Buffy answered with a bright smile and wide, innocent eyes.

"Everyone thinks they're a comedian these days," Jack complained to no one in particular. "Do we know where our criminal mastermind lives?" he asked, switching topics suddenly.

"Splott," Tosh answered.

"Splott?" Owen asked, a smirk on his face.

"I believe estate agents it 'Sploe,'" Ianto corrected, gathering up the garbage scattered over the Hub.

"Splott, Sploe, toe-may-toe, to-mah-to—same difference," Buffy said wistfully as she watched the team leave. She hated feeling like she wasn't doing anything to help; it went against everything that she had been and done for the last two years of her life. This was the most normal she had been since she had been Called, and she hated it. As strange as it sounded, she would rather be in the library researching the latest Big Bad than here with nothing to do but read fiction.

"Ianto!" she called out. "Need help with anything?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my laptop.

**AN:** Thanks to all who have reviewed this story, and for those have added it to their favorite story lists. I really appreciate it. As always, thanks to RevDorothyL for betaing!

* * *

**Chapter Six**

"Where's the Welsh Coffee God when you need him?" Buffy muttered under her breath as she tossed a ball she had found on Owen's desk against the wall. She had looked all around for Ianto after the rest of the team had left, to no avail. "Stupid tunnels not leading anywhere at all," she continued to complain as she heard the quiet whine of the lift behind her. As if by magic, Ianto appeared out of nowhere in particular. Buffy shot him a glare and was about to ask him where he had been, when she overheard the conversation the four others were having.

"The first time, it happens to Gwen. A boy, at the railway station," Jack said as he stepped off the lift, turning to help Gwen and Tosh off.

"Who's now in his 70s, alive and well, and living in Butetown," Gwen replied, going straight to her work station, followed closely by Owen, who wore a shell-shocked look on his face. "The second time, it happens to Owen. Like me, you didn't just see it, you felt emotions that weren't yours."

"Wait up," Buffy interrupted as she followed the duo to Gwen's desk. "The creepy, ghost machine of doom struck again? Who let Owen touch it?"

"This isn't a joke!" Owen snapped back, running his hands through his hair in agitation. "She was raped, and I had to experience her terror!" Buffy bit off the smart comment she was about to throw back at him. No matter what these people said, this was sounding an awful lot like the ghost possession she and Angel had been through only a few months before.

"The victim's name was Lizzie," Jack continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted. "It was maybe 40, 45 years ago. Toshiko, do we know anything about her yet?" Tosh quickly rattled off the facts, including that she had been raped and murdered under the bridge where Owen had activated the button. She was only seventeen—the same age as her, Buffy realized with a small shiver.

"He killed her," Owen whispered, still in shock from what he had seen.

"No one was brought to trial," Tosh continued, a small frown on her face, as she continued to scan the documents on the screen in front of her.

"She told her Mum she'd be home by nine," Owen continued, in that same haunted voice. Buffy was almost tempted to comfort him, but before she could move, he seemed to snap out of his daze. "So, what about Ed Morgan?" he asked Tosh, a manic energy overtaking him. "That's what she called him. 'You're a bad one, Ed Morgan.' Look him up," he commanded when Tosh just stared at him.

"It's kind of a common name," Tosh protested softly, as she started pulling records from around that time.

"I don't get it," Buffy said, looking from one team member to the next. "Two separate 'hauntings,' to two completely different people, in two completely different locations." She bit her lip, trying to think what Giles would do if he were here. "Is there any connection?" she asked, giving Jack a questioning look.

He looked at computer rendering of the object carefully before exclaiming in an excited voice, "A quantum transducer! Look!" he gestured wildly to Tosh, who rushed over and started studying the complicated figures.

"Wow," she breathed. "I'd kill to get one of these." Buffy rolled her eyes at the geekout moment between their fearless leader and their tech mistress.

"Care to translate that to English, please?" she asked, wrinkling her forehead in confusion. "'Cause, I just heard a whole lot of nothing I could understand." Jack and Tosh both ignored her, continuing to "ooh" and "ahh" over the mysterious device. Fortunately for Buffy, she wasn't the only who was confused by what so fascinated Tosh and Jack.

"What's a transducer?" Gwen asked, her confused look mirroring Buffy's. This time, however, Jack and Tosh appeared to be listening to the question being asked.

"A transducer converts energy from one form to another," Tosh explained, never tearing her eyes away from the computer screen. "They're in headphones. They convert electrical signals into sound. And they're in this device too, converting quantum energy and amplifying it."

"Into these ghost-type thingies?" Buffy asked, still slightly confused and unnerved. "What are they converting, then?"

"Emotion," Jack said, picking up for Tosh, who had gone back to examining the thing. "Human emotion is energy. You can't always see it, or hear it, but you can feel it. Ever had déjà vu? Felt someone 'walk over your grave?' Ever felt someone behind you in an empty room? Well, there was. There always is." Buffy nodded hesitantly, still not exactly sure if this explanation made sense with her understanding of what ghosts were. Then again, the thing that had kept those two ghosts around in Sunnydale was emotion, so it could be plausible. Buffy mulled this over, trying to make sense of some of the techno-babble Jack and Tosh had thrown out. She had almost forgotten about Owen, when his shouting reached her ears.

"I saw it happen, Jack!" Owen yelled at Jack, who only looked at him coldly.

"No, you didn't," he answered, his voice taking on a hard edge. "You weren't there. You saw the echo of a moment, amplified by alien technology. So, just tell me how that will play in court?

"Well, since when did we care about court?" Owen retorted, refusing to back down. Buffy looked from one man to the other, trying to figure out who would give first. Jack closed his eyes for a moment, as if asking for the patience to deal with Owen.

"Tomorrow, we go looking for Bernie Harris and find out what he knows about this ghost machine," he finally said, shooting Owen a warning look. "We do our job, and find out where this thing came from. Now, go home," he ordered in a deadly quiet voice. Owen didn't budge, continuing to stare at Jack incredulously.

"Gwen, with me," Jack ordered, turning around and walking quickly from the room.

"What's his problem?" Buffy asked Tosh, who was taking Jack's advice and packing to go home. "Why was he all dictator-y on Owen for trying to solve this thing?"

"That's just how Jack gets sometimes," Tosh explained, slinging her bag over her shoulder and sparing a small glance at Owen. That glance struck Buffy as familiar and it took her a moment to place it. It was the same look Willow used to give Xander, before she had seriously started dating Oz. Before Buffy could say anything to Tosh, however, the woman had already boarded the lift, and was giving Buffy a small wave good-bye. Buffy returned it, before turning back to Owen.

"Look, Owen," she began before he cut her off.

"If you're going to tell me to drop this, you can forget it," he snapped at her, angrily typing requests into his computer. Buffy shot him a glare and stalked over so she was in his line of sight.

"Actually, I was going to offer you my help if you needed it, but if you're going to be all rude-guy on me, you can forget it," she replied, letting her temper get the better of her. Here she was thinking that Owen might actually have something other than jerkishness in him, but guess she was wrong.

"Wait," he called out to her, which nearly caused her to trip over her own feet in surprise. "I didn't mean to snap at you like that," he apologized, gathering the various pages he had finished printing out. "I appreciate the offer, but this is something I need to do by myself. Just don't let Jack know about it," he added, giving her a conspiratorial wink. Before Buffy could answer, he too had made his way to the lift and was leaving her behind.

Finding herself with nothing to do, yet again, she decided to wander the tunnels a little more to see if she could find the wayward Welshman. Ianto had disappeared once again, and she was determined to figure out where he was, if only for her peace of mind.

Her path took her deeper and deeper into the bowels of Torchwood. "Figures," she muttered to herself. "Cross over into another universe, and I still spend more time in dark, creepy tunnels-of-death-and-destruction than in actual sunshine." Rounding a corner, she spied a door with an eerie blue light shining behind it. Intrigued, she began moving slowly towards it. She was so intent on her target that when a hand gripped her arm, she gave a small shriek of surprise.

"You shouldn't be down here," Ianto admonished her angrily. "Not even we know what lurks down here. This is no place for a child."

"I can take care of myself perfectly fine," Buffy protested, wrenching her arm out of his grasp. "I mean, hello, modern woman here!"

"I don't doubt that you can take care of yourself against a normal human being," Ianto said as he led her through the maze of tunnels back to the main part of the Hub, "but there are things lurking down there that even Jack is wary of."

"If Jack doesn't like them, why aren't they dead?" she asked, blinking at the bright lights.

"Some things are harder to catch than others," Ianto replied stiffly, moving around the office in an incredibly controlled manner. He stayed silent for the rest of the evening, effectively ignoring her. Buffy, who hated the silent treatment with a passion, responded by blasting some of the music Gwen had lent her on her computer.

The situation continued this way until Gwen appeared from wherever she had been with Jack. She gave Buffy a confused look, but Buffy only shook her head. Gwen looked like she wanted to ask what was going on, but then stopped herself. Whatever was going on between Buffy and Ianto would sort itself out without her there. She needed to get home to Rhys and make sure he wasn't put out with her about their argument earlier that day.

Buffy watched Gwen leave before turning to the area she had come from. "Where's Jack?" she asked Ianto, breaking the silence between the two of them.

"Wandering around the Hub, no doubt," he replied, somewhat more formally than normal, but at least his voice no longer had the angry tinge it did earlier. "Speaking of which, we should be going as well."

"What's the point?" Buffy groused as they made their way to the parking lot. "We're always the first ones here and the last ones to leave. Do you think Jack would mind if we set up shop in the Hub and just skipped the commute? Think of what you could save on rent and gas."

"I'd be spending it all on electricity and heating," Ianto replied, a smile finally making its way to his face. "You're lucky you arrived during the summer. During the winter, the Hub is nearly arctic."

"Really?" Buffy asked, a devastated look on her face. "Why did you have to tell me that? Cold and Buffy are clearly un-mixy things." They continued along this vein much of the way home, their brief disagreement nearly forgotten. That strange blue light nearly slipped Buffy's mind, but it resurfaced later as she tried to fall asleep.

_Wonder what that was?_ she asked herself mentally, staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. She thought of the anger Ianto had shown when he found her there and wondered if it was because he was concerned for her safety, or if he was actually hiding something down there. Was Ianto even capable of something like that? She mulled these uneasy thoughts for what felt like hours, before drifting into an uneasy sleep. At least, for once, there were no nightmares.

~*~*~

"Where's Owen?" Buffy asked Tosh the next morning. It was nearing noon and Owen still hadn't shown up.

"I tried calling his mobile, but he wasn't picking up," Tosh replied, nervously playing with her hair. "He's been late before, but never this late."

"Wonder if what Jack said to him yesterday put him over the edge?" Buffy asked, running the previous day's conversation through her head. Tosh only shrugged.

"Whatever it is, he better have a good excuse," Ianto cut in. "Jack hates it when agents are simply careless like that."

"Speaking of the Suspendered One, where is he?" Buffy asked, her eyes darting around the Hub. "I don't think I've seen him all morning."

"He's down in the lab, examining something that came through the Rift last week," Ianto said. "If you're going down to find him, please bring him this," he added, handing her first a stack of paperwork and then a coffee mug.

"OK," Buffy said, taking both items. She was about to head out when she realized something rather important. "Uh, where's the lab?" she asked, turning around to face Ianto. He gave her a quick series of directions, which she did her best to memorize. Thankfully, she didn't get lost—there's a first time for everything—and she found Jack leaning over a table, carefully examining something she didn't recognize.

"I come bearing the gifts of coffee and paperwork," she announced, entering the room and handing both to him. He glanced up at her and gave her a grin of thanks, before going back to his examination. Buffy let her eyes wander, taking in the strange assortment of tools and machines.

"Ianto told me about the stunt you pulled last night," Jack said, breaking the silence. Buffy paused and looked at him, unsure of what he was going to say. "I'm not impressed. I get that you're bored with just sitting around, but you don't have free rein in the Hub."

"If you don't trust me, then why am I even allowed in the Hub?" Buffy shot back, crossing her arms. "Why didn't you just lock me up in those lovely vaults you showed me, instead of handing me off to Ianto to take care of?"

"First, after watching you take down a Weevil, I doubt even our vaults could hold you," Jack stated bluntly, unconsciously mirroring Buffy's confrontational posture. "Second, call me crazy for thinking this, but I was hoping that if we showed a little trust in you, you might show a little faith in us. Now, I understand if talking about home is painful for you, but I would appreciate even a little disclosure at this point." Buffy turned away from Jack and walked towards the other end of the room.

"Disclosure? You want disclosure?" she asked, doing her best to sound calm and collected, when really she was anything but. "I don't know if my mom thinks I'm dead or alive. I don't know if my friends are still among the living after what they went through. I don't know…" She choked back a sob and tried to blink back tears. She didn't want to look like she was playing on Jack's sympathies, but there was a reason why she didn't talk about home.

Jack didn't say anything, only watching her quietly. As much as he hated doing this, provoking her was the only way she would unknowingly let slip bits of information about her past life. He had noticed this when she had first come, and he had been waiting for an opportunity to get her emotional.

Buffy stayed silent for a moment, doing her best to get her emotions back under control. Taking a deep breath, she made to leave. Jack moved to follow her, deliberately grabbing the coffee and leaving the paperwork behind. Buffy noticed this out of the corner of her eye and glared at him. "You better grab that, or Ianto might retaliate by withholding coffee privileges for a while," she said, giving him a shaky smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"He wouldn't dare," Jack said, but he went back and grabbed the paperwork anyways.

"Jack," Tosh called out as soon as she spied him and Buffy emerging from the vaults. "Owen just called. He's found Bernie Harris."

"Tosh, Gwen, with me," Jack barked out, grabbing the alien device that had started this whole mess, before heading to the parking lot.

"Are you ever tempted to tell Jack that you're sick of staying here, and want to go chase alien baddies?" Buffy asked Ianto as they worked to straighten up the room Torchwood was converting into a gym. "Or are you happy to be Alfred to his Batman…and the fact that I know so much about them shows just how sad my social life has become," she added, making a face.

"Everyone has a role in the team," he said, feeling like he was repeating what he'd said the day before, when she had asked a similar question. "This is mine."

Buffy rolled her eyes and followed him back up the stairs. "But don't you ever want to shake up the social order a bit?" she continued, following him to the coffee machine, which he began to clean. She supposed cleaning the machine was relaxing for him, since he always seemed to start when she was bugging him. "You know, let loose, break a few rules?"

"If it results in me getting fired, then no, not really," he answered, never raising his eyes from the task in front of him. Buffy sighed in exasperation and began playing with a loose bit of the machine. "Stop playing with that," Ianto ordered her, snagging the piece from her hands and fitting it seamlessly into the rest of the machine. Buffy was about to say something else, when the cog door rolled open to reveal Jack leading a shaken Gwen to his office. Tosh and Owen followed, each with a confused look on their faces.

"What happened?" she asked Tosh, who gave her a confused shrug.

"We found Bernie Harris, and it turns out that there's a second half to the device," Tosh explained, pulling up some files on her computer to enter the new information. "Turns out, when you put them together, you see the future."

"Let me guess, Gwen pressed the button that said 'do not touch?'" Buffy asked. Tosh nodded silently, and kept working. "What did she see?" Buffy continued, wondering if this was more of a prophecy thing that might be open to interpretation or alteration, or a glimpse into a set-in-stone future.

"She didn't say," Tosh answered, finally looking up at Buffy. "It shook her up, though, and she kept shooting Owen these weird looks throughout the entire ride back."

"It was like I killed her damn puppy, or something," Owen complained, grabbing his jacket and heading out the door. "Tosh, I'm going to the pub for a drink. You want to come with?" Tosh nodded, switching off her computer before joining an impatient Owen.

"See you tomorrow," she said to Buffy before disappearing from view. Buffy glanced at Jack's office covertly, wondering what they were talking about. Moving carefully, she found a spot where she could pick up bits and pieces of what they were saying without being too obvious about it.

"That was one future, one of many possible futures," she heard Jack say reassuringly to Gwen. Buffy resisted the urge to snort and leaned back in her chair. Anything involving futures, plural, was too messy for her taste. Memories of the whole Master prophecy were still too fresh in her mind for comfort. Yawning, she leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. She hadn't slept well the night before, and it was starting to catch up with her.

_Blood, there was so much blood. It flowed down the deserted street and pooled around two bodies. Buffy looked around and spied the Torchwood team staring at the bodies in shock. Buffy knelt down to get a closer look, only to scream in shock when the dead faces of Kendra and Ms. Calendar stared back at her._

"_Why couldn't you save us?" a voice behind her said. She spun around to see the pale face of Bernie Harris staring back at her. "You're the Slayer…"_

Jack had been looking at Bernie Harris's picture intently when he heard a gasped, "No!" from behind him. Turning around, he saw Buffy sitting up, gasping for air.

"We need to go to Bernie Harris's house," she panted, getting up and walking stiffly towards Jack. She was pale and her eyes had the same haunted look Gwen's eyes had earlier that evening after she had pressed the button.

"Why do we need to go to Bernie's?" Jack asked, wondering if Buffy had pressed the button behind his back. Buffy ran her hands irritably through her hair, and began pacing.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she muttered under her breath, all caution thrown to the wind.

"Try me," Jack challenged, ignoring Tosh and Owen coming in. They stared at the scene before them, eyes darting between Jack and the agitated teenage girl.

"I see things," Buffy said, not looking at anyone in particular, her eyes seeing something no one else could. "Sometimes, I dream about things that are coming. The dreams are a warning." She closed her eyes, the vision still vivid in her memory. Jack looked at her, not sure if he should be taking her seriously or not. He had seen some strange things in his life, but people who got visions in their dreams were a little beyond the pale, even for him. Buffy, seeing this look, nearly shrank back into herself. "Please," she added softly. "There's a chance we can save him."

"Tosh, Owen, come with me," Jack ordered, his decision made. "You too, Buffy," he added, seeing her rooted to the spot where she was standing. She nodded and followed him.

"I'm not sure about this whole 'vision' thing, Jack, but there is something else," Owen said as they piled into the SUV. "Tosh and I think Bernie Harris was blackmailing Ed Morgan."

"And how did you figure this out?" Jack asked tightly. Owen looked sheepish and shot a glance at Tosh, as if for support. He got none, so he turned back to Jack.

"I paid Ed Morgan a visit, alright?" he started. "I wanted to threaten him a little, if only to make me feel better. Well, when I was chatting with the man, he said I would be getting no money out of him, and that he had told me that before."

Jack gritted his teeth and called up Gwen. He would chew Owen out for this later , but now he had to make sure no one got killed because of it. "Gwen, this is Jack. Are you still at Bernie's?" he asked.

"No, Jack, I'm almost home," came Gwen's confused voice. "Why are you asking me?"

"Turn your car around and get there as soon as you can," Jack ordered, before hanging up. "What were you thinking, Owen?" Jack demanded angrily, turning briefly to glare at the man beside him.

"I screwed up. I get that, Jack," Owen snapped back at him. "I just wanted to frighten him a little." Before Jack could say anything else, his phone rang.

"Jack, we have a problem," Ianto's voice said. Jack noticed, in a small part of his brain that wasn't otherwise occupied, that Buffy straightened and leaned forward, as if trying to catch what was being said.

"What kind of problem?" Jack demanded, turning wildly onto a street, not caring about traffic laws in his attempt to get to Bernie's house.

"Ed Morgan is walking towards Bernie's house," Ianto said, causing Jack to swear loudly. "He's on Evelyn Street."

"Call Gwen, tell her to get there now," Jack barked, speeding the car up. They soon found themselves racing down Evelyn Street. Jack, spying two figures standing close together in the street, screeched the car to a halt. Fast, almost so fast that he thought he might have imagined it, Buffy was out of the car and sprinting towards the figures.

For Buffy, the world seemed to slow to a crawl. She could see the knife in Ed Morgan's hand slip closer and closer to Bernie's stomach. She was almost there… Bernie's mouth opened in shock and the world snapped back into its proper speed. "No!" Buffy shouted, catching the young man, who was clutching his side as a red stain blossomed beneath his hand. Dimly, she could sense the Torchwood team behind her, guns trained on Ed Morgan. "Come on, Bernie, hold on," she pleaded, removing her jacket and pressing it against the wound.

"He's arresting!" Owen shouted in the background, rushing to her side and shoving her out of the way. Buffy backed away, trying not to look at her bloodstained hands. Owen started chest compressions, but it was hopeless. Bernie Harris was officially dead.

"I couldn't save him," she whispered, starting to shake. "I was so close…"

Gwen, who had arrived at this point, gathered Buffy into a hug and held her close. "Shh, sweetheart," she murmured, trying to overcome her own sense of guilt as she listened to the approaching police sirens.

~*~*~

Later that night, after Jack had debriefed his team about the day's events, and had Ianto lock the device in the secure archives, he gently grabbed Buffy's arm and took her on a long walk. She hadn't said a word since she had given her statement to the police about what had happened, and he needed to make sure she wasn't going to go into complete emotional lockdown mode. They were silent for most of their walk, just taking in the sights of nighttime in Cardiff. He wanted to ask her about the visions she claimed she had, as well as that strange burst of speed, but he knew now wasn't the time. They finally stopped their wanderings by the water tower, taking in the view of the Cardiff Harbor.

"I should've been able to save him," Buffy finally said in a broken voice. "I was so close. If I had just been faster…"

"We don't know what could've happened," Jack told her. Buffy stayed silent, looking over the horizon at the dark water. From the corner of his eye, Jack spied Ianto walking towards them, steaming mugs of coffee in his hands. He handed them to the two figures, but instead of retreating back into the Hub, stayed out with them.

"How do you deal with the ghosts of those you can't save?" Buffy asked, clutching the mug to her like a lifeline. Ianto, in a very un-Ianto-like move, put his arm around her, drawing her close to him in a comforting gesture.

"You just learn to live with them," Jack told her softly. She looked up at him for the first time all night, and he wondered what she had seen that left her eyes so haunted. "We can't save everyone who needs saving. We certainly can try to save as many as we can, but in the end, we need to accept that there are going to be those we can't get to in time."

_But I'm supposed to be able to save them,_ Buffy felt like wailing. She should've been able to save Bernie and Kendra and Ms. Calendar and Jesse and Merrick and countless others who had died on her watch. She stayed quiet, however, and watched the sun rise over the slumbering city.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my laptop.

**AN:** Thanks to all who have reviewed this story, and for those have added it to their favorite story lists. I really appreciate it. As always, thanks to RevDorothyL for betaing!

* * *

Chapter Seven

"How's she doing?" Tosh asked Ianto a few days after Bernie's death. Ianto shot a worried look at the CCTV monitor that showed the area around the invisible lift and shook his head.

"She still blames herself for not getting there in time," Ianto said, filling out forms in his typically neat manner. "She refuses to talk about it, but it's been eating at her." Ianto didn't mention the times he had gone into her room to find her pillow wet with tears and Buffy with dark circles under her eyes, that she then hid with copious amounts of makeup.

"But it wasn't her fault!" Tosh protested. Ianto sighed irritably.

"We've tried telling her that, but she doesn't seem to believe it," he said. "It's like she failed at some self-appointed task."

"She's just a girl. She should be worried about boys and school, not something like this," Tosh said, not knowing that the object of their discussion had been worrying about saving people since she was fifteen. "Do you think she's like that because she wants to feel like part of the team and thinks that she needs to save someone?"

"I think this goes beyond her wanting to be part of Torchwood," Ianto replied quietly. "I get the feeling that's she's carrying some sort of guilt from where she was before she came here." Ianto didn't have much to back up his suspicions, but he was positive Buffy felt as if she had failed someone in her previous life. "There's nothing we can really do until she feels ready to talk to us," Ianto continued. Tosh shook her head and went back to her workstation.

Above them, perched beside the water tower, Buffy sat with her knees drawn close to her chest, watching the bustling crowds make their way through the Roald Dahl Plass. She needed to be out of the Hub, needed to feel the sun on her skin. Even though everyone in Torchwood tried to tell her it wasn't her fault that Bernie had died, she still felt like it was. It was her job to save people, and she had failed.

Shifting her legs slightly, so as not to cut off her circulation, she watched the mass of people and wished desperately she could be one of them, without the burden of being the Slayer. A gaggle of giggling girls passed by, leaving Buffy to gaze after them wistfully.

"Oi, what's your problem?" she heard someone shout. Turning her head to see what was going on, Buffy spied something that snapped her out of her melancholy mood.

A crowd was gathering around a man, who could only be described as being in a very happy place. He weaved through the crowd with an overly contented smile on his face, not caring if he bumped into others, or even if he strayed into the busy street. Sporadically, he would whistle some little tune only he seemed to know, Buffy watched his progress, wondering what he was taking in order to get him in that state of mind.

"That's the third one like that I've seen this week," a person standing near Buffy complained. "I don't know who they think they are, but they're disrupting the city, that's what they're doing."

"As long as they aren't hurting anyone, why are you bothered?" her companion asked, eyes following the strange man.

"It's just unnatural," the woman complained before she and her friend moved out of Buffy's earshot. _Third one this week? Weird,_ Buffy thought, repositioning herself again. She continued to follow the man with her eyes until she decided she should go back inside before Torchwood started worrying about her.

"You're back," Ianto commented, handing her the sandwich he had bought her.

"Thanks," Buffy mumbled, taking the food and sitting down. "Do you know anything about the crazy happy people?" she asked. "Is there something in the water I should know about and avoid?"

"Pardon?" Ianto asked, slightly confused as to where this was coming from.

"Up there, I saw this guy who was completely out of it in a 'I'm too happy to be believed' kind of way," Buffy explained. "Then, this lady was all, 'That's the third one I've seen this week,' and it got me wondering."

"I don't believe I've heard anything about overly happy people, but that could be because I'm here most of the day," Ianto replied, secretly happy that she had found something to take her mind off the Bernie Harris incident. "Although, I'm not sure being overly happy is necessarily a bad thing."

"Ianto, I'm not talking about 'Yay, I found an extra prize in my cereal' happy," Buffy clarified. "I'm talking about full on, walking in a daze of happy feelings so strong you walk into oncoming traffic. How's that normal?"

"There are drugs that do that, I'm sure," Ianto replied. "It wouldn't surprise me."

"Why, are you some secret drug lord? Is there something you aren't telling me, Ianto Jones?" Buffy asked, playing with the sandwich wrappings. Ianto's heart momentarily stopped, worrying for a brief second if she had any suspicions about Lisa. Then, he noticed the mischievous glint in her eye that had been lately absent, and he realized she was trying to joke with him.

"Yes, because in my abundant spare time, I manage to experiment with dangerous chemicals and successfully run a drug empire," he deadpanned, just as Jack walked past.

"What's this about Ianto being a secret drug lord?" he asked Buffy, eyebrows raised in confusion.

"We're just talking about how overly happy people are weird and unnatural," Buffy informed him. "I saw this guy up there who was either really drugged up or just happy beyond normal bounds of human happiness. Then, to make matters even weirder, this lady said that's the third one like that she had seen this week." Instead of laughing it off, as she half-expected him to, Jack stilled and narrowed his gaze.

"Describe to me exactly what you saw," he ordered. Buffy, wondering what caused this sudden change, described as best she could remember the man's actions. When she finished, Jack paused for a moment before turning to Gwen and Owen.

"Gwen, contact your buddies at the police station, ask them if they've had any complaints about people in overly euphoric states," he said. "Also, ask if they have any in custody at the moment. If they do, I want you to go with Owen to get a blood sample."

"Why do we need to take a sample of some bloke who's just having a good time?" Owen asked, turning his chair to face Jack.

"Just do what I said, and I'll explain later. Now!" Jack barked at the duo. Gwen jumped a little and went to the phone to call up her old partner, Andy. Within minutes, she had her answer.

"There've been multiple reports, and they seem to be increasing," Gwen reported, looking at what she had written down. "They currently have one woman in the holding cells."

"Good. Gwen, Owen, go. Tosh, I want you to go into the police files and see if there's a common location factor, either where they live, or if there's an area where a majority of these people seem to appear."

"On it, Jack," Tosh said, flashing him a quick smile. Buffy, feeling left out of the general bustle, started to withdraw again. She was fine as long as she had something to focus on, but once that ended all she was left with were her thoughts. Ianto, noticing this, turned to Jack.

"How much longer do you think it will be until we get the employee gym ready?" Ianto asked his boss, following the man into his office.

"Why do you ask?" Jack said, rubbing his temples. He had a suspicion about what was causing those people to act the way they were, but he sincerely hoped he was wrong.

"Buffy needs something to distract her," Ianto replied succinctly. "If she has something to occupy her attention, it distracts her from Bernie Harris's death. From what I gather, she was fairly active before she came here, so the exercise may prove to be therapeutic."

"Do you have the forms completed for equipment requisitions?" Jack knew that Ianto probably had everything well in hand, but it made him feel better just asking about it. Silently, Ianto dug through the precariously perched pile of paperwork on Jack's desk to produce the forms, all filled out and awaiting Jack's signature. Jack glanced through them, noting that nothing unusual had been requested, just the normal materials for a gym. He quickly signed off on them, giving them back to Ianto to process.

"Thank you, sir," Ianto, said, preparing to leave before Jack stopped him.

"Has she talked about that night at all to you?" Jack asked. Ianto shook his head.

"I don't want to push her and cause her to withdraw from us further," Ianto explained. "She was getting better with dealing about coming here until this whole mess occurred."

"Just take care of her, Ianto," Jack said. Ianto, taking that as a sign to leave, nodded and made for the door before Jack could call him back again. From his small workstation, he covertly watched Buffy as she listlessly flipped through a magazine Gwen had brought with her this morning.

"Buffy, do you want to help me with this?" he asked, gathering up various papers that needed to be placed in the Archives. Buffy nodded and followed him down. She had never been down to the Archives before, so she was taken by surprise at the sheer amount of material stored in such a small space.

"Giles would have a field day in here," she breathed, before realizing what she had just said. Seeing Ianto's curious look, Buffy decided she had gone past the point of no return and should continue. "He was my mentor," she explained softly. "He-he was from here and we would tease him about loving tea and wearing tweed and his accent…" She hastily wiped away the tears that had started to fall. "He was-is a librarian, and I swear, loved books more than anything." Except she knew this wasn't true—he loved the Scoobies like they were his own children and would do anything for them.

Ianto stood next to her, stunned to hear what she was saying. Buffy had never, except for that brief instance on her first day, talked about the life she had left behind. He remembered that she had muttered the name Giles when she had first arrived and he had wondered who this person was. He didn't know if he should take this openness as a sign she was feeling more comfortable around him, or a as a sign that the last few days had worn her down so much that she was letting things unintentionally slip past her barriers.

"Being around you guys just reminds me of him so much," Buffy continued, looking at her hands. "You all aren't as stuffy as him, but the accents, the humor, other little things just remind me of him." She paused and gave Ianto a weak smile. "Sorry for getting all teary on you. I'm just…I'm just not in a good place right now."

"Don't be sorry," Ianto reassured her. "Just…if you want to talk about anything…"

"I get it," Buffy interrupted, turning to face the files. "So, what do you want help with, Coffee God?" she asked, trying to give him a bright smile and failing. Ianto didn't say anything, but just showed her what he needed help with. They worked in silence for about an hour before everything was organized to Ianto's satisfaction.

Emerging from the Archives, Buffy was surprised to see the remainder of the team gathered around a projection of a weird looking plant.

"…Secretes a pheromone that puts the population of the host planet in this euphoric state," Jack was explaining to the confused team. "It not only pacifies them, but makes so that they gradually lose the will to take care of themselves. Eventually, they all just lie down and die. During this time, the plant will have spread and completely blankets the planet once all other living organisms are out of the way."

"A plant? A bloody plant is going to end the world?" Owen asked, a disbelieving look on his face. "You've got to be joking!"

"No, Owen, I'm not," Jack said. "The Trexalene Orchid is one of the most feared and deadly plants in the known universe. What we need to do is find it before it starts sending out seeds. Using what Tosh found out, this is our search area," Jack said, pointing to an area on the map of Cardiff behind him.

Ianto had continued on to his workstation, but Buffy stayed to listen in on Jack's briefing. "And I thought this place couldn't get any weirder," she muttered, loud enough so that only Ianto could hear her. "It's like a plot out of a bad sci-fi movie. 'Attack of the Killer Happy Plant!'"

"It could be worse," Ianto said, watching Owen continuing to complain about the threat. "We could be in 'Attack of the Killer Nightmare Plant.'" Buffy fake-shuddered and bit back the temptation to say, "Yeah, been there, done that, bored now."

"Ianto, Buffy, go home," Jack ordered after sending Owen, Gwen, and Tosh to search for the killer alien plant. Buffy looked at him in surprise. Jack had never sent them home early before, especially if there was a team in the field. Ianto looked equally surprised at Jack's order.

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking at Jack. "There isn't anything else you need me to do, sir?"

"Nope. Just go home, relax, and enjoy the rare evening off," Jack said. Ianto shrugged and gathered his things, while Buffy continued to stare at Jack in confusion.

"Come on, Buffy," Ianto said, placing his hand on her shoulder. Buffy nodded and began to follow him out.

"Buffy," Jack's voice said, causing her to stop and turn around. "You did good today."

"Huh?" Buffy asked, confused as to what he meant. "I didn't do anything.

"You noticed something out of the ordinary and you let us know," Jack said, walking towards her and giving her a pat on the back. "You were able to accurately describe what you observed, which gave us a clue as to what we might be facing. You did good."

Buffy looked at him, unsure of what to say. "Thanks," she finally said before following Ianto to the parking lot. She remained silent for the ride home, mulling over what Jack had said. Had she ever thanked Willow, Xander, or Giles when they had helped her save the world? It felt weird being relegated from world savior to research Scooby.

That night, no matter how much she read, she just couldn't fall asleep. There was too much going through her head, from the events of the day to her wracking her brain to see if she ever let the rest of the Scoobies know how much she appreciated their help. Growling in frustration, she got out of bed and did her best to remain silent as she crept towards the kitchen.

Ianto didn't know what it was, but something woke him up from the light sleep he had fallen into. Listening carefully, he heard someone moving in the kitchen, doing their best to remain silent. Ianto moved quietly to see what was behind the disturbance, only to be confronted by Buffy standing in front of the stove, watching something in a pot.

"Couldn't sleep," she explained when she noticed his questioning look. "Thought I'd make some hot cocoa, since it's the only thing I can actually make. You want some? There won't be any mini-marshmallows, though."

"I can live without the marshmallows," Ianto replied, getting the mugs down from the cupboard for her. She smiled at him in thanks, quickly preparing and serving the drink.

"My mom would make me this," she said suddenly, looking at the drink in front of her. "Whenever things got tough, or if one of us was feeling down, she would make hot chocolate with the little marshmallows." She took a deep breath and continued. "I miss her." Buffy tried not to think of their last exchange, where her mother had given her the ultimatum of either staying inside or never coming home again. Buffy wondered if her mom had been serious, or just scared, and if she thought that her daughter had run away for good.

"She'd be proud of you, Buffy," Ianto said, trying to reassure the girl in front of him. Buffy gave him a wry half-smile in reply.

"Yeah," she found herself saying, the aftermath of Parents' Night coming to mind, where her mother had been proud of her for defending the parents and teachers trapped inside. "Yeah, she would."


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my laptop.

**AN:** Thanks to all who have reviewed this story, and for those have added it to their favorite story lists. I really appreciate it. As always, thanks to RevDorothyL for betaing!

**Chapter Eight**

The next day when Ianto and Buffy arrived at the Hub, they found that the situation with the Truckee Orchid, or whatever it was called, had been resolved, with the only casualty being Owen getting a small whiff of the thing. That left him slightly loopy for the next twenty-four hours, much to Buffy's amusement.

"You need to stop tormenting Owen," Ianto told her after Jack had sent Owen home for the day, with Tosh alongside to keep him out of trouble.

"But it was so much fun!" Buffy protested, still amused by Owen's reaction to flickering lights. "It's not my fault that the lights got all flickery when he was around." Ianto suppressed the urge to sigh, but was secretly glad Buffy was no longer brooding as much over the Bernie Harris incident.

"You know, I'm kinda sad that you never got a whiff of the Treacle Geranium, or whatever it was Jack called it," Buffy complained. "I wanted to see how you'd react under the influence." Ianto didn't verbally respond, but he did cut off her coffee for the rest of the day in retaliation. Buffy was tempted to up the ante by hiding his favorite suit, but decided she valued her daily dose of caffeinated yumminess too much to put it in further jeopardy.

Another week went by, and before Buffy realized it, she had been with Torchwood for about a month. The nightmares that had plagued her after first arriving were still happening, but with a marked decrease in frequency. She was glad, since it meant she didn't come into the Hub every day with dark circles under her eyes due to lack of sleep. The nightmares had changed, however, from simply being about Angel to involving everyone she had left behind blaming her for what was going on in her absence. Her dream phantoms never got into specifics, but kept repeating the point that everything was going to hell because of her selfishness. She could deal with Angel/Angelus going after her, but the new nightmares left her more emotionally drained and feeling guiltier than before.

Other than the new brand of "Let's see how long Buffy can survive on little to no sleep" nightmares, life with Torchwood was going fairly smoothly. Although there were times when Jack would give her odd, appraising looks, for the most part, the team had accepted her as a kind of team little sister. She was never allowed out in the field, to her annoyance, but she was allowed to help out around the Hub, mainly in the Archives with Ianto. That would be, of course, the times when she could find the magical, vanishing Ianto Jones.

"Ianto?" Buffy called out one morning, glancing all around the empty Hub for him. She wanted to ask him what he what he'd like her to do, but he had pulled another Disapparation on her. Growling in frustration, she debated whether it would be worth getting in trouble to track down Ianto and put a damn bell on him.

Although she was now kinda-sorta part of the team, the one thing that everyone was strict about was her not roaming the lower regions without someone from the team present. She was tempted to offer to fight Janet just to show them that she could handle herself, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with the questions that would inevitably ensue.

Biting her lip in thought, Buffy quickly made up her mind about what she would do. The new gym that she had helped Ianto set up was right along the main route to get in and out of the vaults, which meant she had a better than even chance of ambushing Ianto if he went that way.

Making sure that the papers she'd been going through were carefully put away, she grabbed the gym bag that was now her constant companion and made her way down to her little sanctuary. Even though the gym was technically open for anyone to use, she was the only one who was in it on a regular basis. It wasn't fancy, but the punching bags and weights gave her an outlet for all the Slayer energy that wasn't getting used.

Humming slightly off-key to an old (in this world, at least) Brittney Spears song, Buffy quickly lost herself in her workout, going through a variety of moves that Giles had taught her, as well as working in some of the tricks she had learned during her time in Hell. There were no weapons in the gym, mainly due to Jack not wanting her around all things sharp, pointy, shiny, and liable to hurt anyone. By the end of an hour, she heard the distinct sounds of the team returning. Grimacing, she realized Ianto had used one of his other ways to get back to the main area without her noticing.

"What did I miss?" she asked Tosh, while sneakily snagging an unopened bottle of water from Owen's desk. Tosh rolled her eyes at Buffy's antics, but gave her a small smile.

"Just a standard Weevil retrieval," Tosh explained. "Of course, the Weevil managed to get itself surrounded by some guard dogs in a junkyard."

"Who drew the short straw?" Buffy asked, watching Ianto out of the corner of her eye. He was moving around like he always did, but there was something about his expression that she just couldn't place at the moment.

"

"Jack, for once, although I think Owen cheated," Gwen chimed in. "That, or Jack always cheats," she added thoughtfully.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Buffy said. "Where is he, by the way?" Tosh and Gwen glanced at each other, amusement etched on both of their faces. "That bad?" Buffy asked.

"One of the dogs took a particular liking to Jack," Tosh explained. "He's with Owen right now getting patched up."

"I would stay clear of him for a bit, if I were you," Gwen advised. "The dog got blood on his coat, and it has to be dry cleaned before he can wear it again." Buffy made a face. Jack was a little too attached to that coat for his own good, and he would be Major Cranky-pants until the greatcoat was back in his hands.

"So I guess good-natured teasing would be out of the question?" Buffy asked, causing Tosh to shake her head in amusement. "Oh well. I guess Owen's still fair game."

"Don't you think you prank him enough as is?" Tosh asked. Buffy gave an evil cackle in response, but stayed by Tosh's desk. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, except for Ianto getting a mysterious phone call on his cell and disappearing for a few more hours. Buffy had been the only one around him when he had received the call, and tried covertly to listen in before she realized he was talking in Japanese.

"Where did you learn Japanese?" Buffy asked on the drive back to his apartment. She refused to give into tweediness and call it a 'flat.' Ianto started slightly, but otherwise remained calm.

"I've learned a lot of little tricks over the years of working with Torchwood," he explained, parking the car and turning off the engine. "Japanese happens to be one of them."

"So who was that then?" Buffy asked, determined not to let this go. So maybe she was being a little hypocritical about wanting to crack Ianto's secrets when she had plenty of her own, but he was hiding something and she wanted to know what was going on.

"Just some Torchwood business that needed to be taken care of," Ianto said. "So, what do you want for supper?" he asked, changing the subject. Buffy didn't comment, but filed the incident into the growing collection of weird incidents.

That night, after she was supposed to have gone to sleep, she sat curled up on her bed with a flashlight and a notebook, trying to figure out the puzzle that was Ianto Jones. So far, all she had written down were weird conversations in Japanese, numerous disappearing acts, adept at hiding thoughts/feelings/things in general, and that mysterious blue light, which she was sure had something to do with whatever he was hiding. "What are you up to, Mr. Jones?" she muttered under her breath, trying to put together the pieces.

Ianto lay on his bed, wondering when Buffy would finally turn off her damn torch and go to sleep. He needed to make sure he had all the supplies needed for when Tanizaki came to help Lisa, and there was no way he could get out of the house without Buffy being asleep. That girl was like a cat, always sniffing around and being too curious for her own good.

He was lucky that she hadn't discovered Lisa so far, although it wasn't for lack of trying. When she had almost walked in on Lisa all those weeks ago, he had been forced to move her further down in the sublevels to hide her. So far, Buffy was the only one who suspected anything, but that was mainly due to the fact she was in the Hub more than anyone other than him.

That brought up another problem, he realized with a groan. How was he supposed to bring in Tanizaki without his teenaged shadow knowing? He would need to find a way to get her out while the rest of the team was gone. He couldn't have her around, not if he wanted to keep Lisa safe from the rest of the team. Although Buffy was good at hiding her own secrets, he wasn't sure how well she could hide his.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the dim light underneath her door flicked off. He breathed a sigh of relief, but waited an additional ten minutes to make sure that there was a better chance of her being asleep. Creeping out of his room, he made his way outside of his flat. He had a lot to do if he wanted to be ready to help Lisa tomorrow.

"What are they up to?" Buffy asked Ianto the next day, her ears catching the sounds of the rest of the team doing…something that was making a whole lot of noise.

"How would I know?" Ianto asked, a slight undertone of bitterness to his voice. "I'm normally in the Archives or in the Tourism Office when they do stupid antics like this."

"Gotcha," Buffy said, as they entered the main room, to be met with the sight of Owen, Tosh, Gwen, and Jack playing some sort basketball-esque game with loads of cheating on all sides. "Government dollars put to work," Buffy commented wryly, as the team ignored their presence, completely focused on their game.

"It's pounds here, not dollars," Ianto corrected, as Owen scored what he supposed was the winning basket in whatever inane game they were playing.

"Girls, grab your handbags!" Owen shouted. "Jack's buying us drinks tonight!"

"I didn't agree to that," Jack protested, grabbing his coat on the way out. Owen tossed the ball to Buffy, who caught it neatly.

"And here we are again. Alone," Buffy commented, glancing around the empty space. Ianto shrugged and began straightening the room. He had just reached Tosh's desk when he noticed she had left her purse behind. Looking at the purse, he realized he had the perfect tool to get Buffy out of the Hub for a few hours. Even with Jack buying the drinks, Tosh would want her purse just in case.

"Buffy," he called out, looking around for her. Her blonde head popped up from around Jack's desk, where he was sure she was planting some sort of surprise for Jack. "Tosh forgot her purse. Do you think you can get it to her?"

"Um, yeah, sure, but I don't know where they went," Buffy said, walking over and leaning against the desk.

"I'll give you a list of pubs that they like to frequent, as well as a map with their locations," Ianto said. "Most of the places they go are within walking distance, and, since the SUV's here, I don't think they went to one of the further ones. Here's the list and here's the map," he added, placing the items, as well as the purse, into her hands."

"Okey doke," said Buffy. "I got my cell in case anything goes down you need me for. Don't burn down the Hub while I'm gone." With that, she hopped on the invisible lift and gave him a small wave goodbye. As soon as she was out of sight, Ianto gave a quiet sigh of relief. The pub he knew that they had gone to was at the bottom of the list, and unless Buffy called the team to see where they were, he would be good for a couple of hours. It was time to give Tanizaki a call.

Buffy wandered around the Cardiff streets, checking the pubs Ianto listed. "Where are they?" she grumbled softly, glaring at the page. She had gone through half the list already, and she hadn't found the rest of the team. She paused for a second, realizing something. "Of course he put the one I needed at the bottom," she complained. "Why didn't I think of that sooner? Why didn't I just _call_ them, for that matter?"

Dialing Gwen's number, she waited until the other woman picked up. "Hey, Gwen. Tosh forgot her purse and I just wanted to check you were at the Black Knight?"

"Can you repeat that? It's a bit loud in here," Gwen shouted back. Buffy repeated what she said, and this time apparently Gwen heard her. "Yeah, we're here, sweetheart. Good thing you got Tosh's purse; she's going a little crazy trying to find it."

"I'll be there soon," Buffy said, hanging up the phone. "Ianto, we are going to have a lot to talk about when I get back to the Hub," she muttered under her breath as she stalked through the streets.

After having safely delivered Tosh's purse and ignored pleas from the team to stay, Buffy inched her way along the path leading up to the Tourism Office. She didn't want Ianto seeing her on CCTV and hiding whatever he was doing.

When she entered the Hub, she heard the soft noises of two men talking, and…something mechanical? Crouching low, Buffy edged her way around the desks. When she reached the autopsy area, she bit back a gasp of shock.

Ianto and another man were hovering over a, well, what could be a cheap version of a Borg. She had metal bits stuck all over her body, and she was hooked up to some strange sort of machine. Was this what Ianto had been hiding all this time? She got her answer when she saw Ianto lovingly caress the thing's cheek. All Buffy could do for a few moments was silently stare at the picture before her. Finally, she worked up her courage and straightened up.

"Ianto, what's going on? Who are these people?" she asked, causing him to turn around and stare at her in shock. _Oh, this was going to be so much fun,_ Buffy thought sarcastically, taking in Ianto's guilty face. As much as she needed to keep her secrets from the team, she was so ready to be done with ones that had the potential to bite her in the ass. Oh, wait a minute, that was pretty much all of them. "You going to tell me, or are you going stare at me like a fish?" she demanded, resisting the urge to find a weapon.

"Bu-Bu-Buffy, I can explain everything," Ianto stammered as Buffy made her way down to the railing and glared at him.

"Then you best get talking," she said in a soft voice. "It's always good to begin with the who, the what, and the why."


End file.
